Monitoring conditions during a field campaign

By Tobias Müller. Published August 4, 2026. Updated November 2, 2026.

A field crew plans a week of work at Big Bar on the Fraser River, in the Fraser Canyon of British Columbia. The site sits about 50 km northwest of Clinton and is reached by gravel roads. Cell coverage is poor, the drive is long, and a wasted trip loses a working day. Someone needs to know the river level, the air temperature, the active weather warnings, and the state of the roads. They need this before the crew leaves and every morning during the campaign.

Each of those answers lives on a different website. Checking them by hand takes time and is easy to forget on a busy morning. This walkthrough shows how to bring all that information into one place with Warnspot. The goal is to send automated notifications to the crew when a measured value crosses a limit you set.

Warnspot calls this an alert rule: a rule that watches your data and messages the people you choose. Public alerts are different. They are official warnings, such as weather warnings and evacuation orders.

Create a location of interest

In Warnspot, locations are a way to organize your monitoring data. A location ties together your data sources, your alert rules, the weather forecast, and public alerts for one place.

Open Locations, click Create Location, and give it a name and a geopoint. For this campaign the name is Big Bar and the geopoint is 51.083475, -121.959919. You can type the coordinates or drop the marker on the map.

Add data sources

A location groups measurements from public stations and from your own private data sources. Two public stations sit close enough to Big Bar to describe conditions at the work site, so the crew links both to the location.

The first is the Water Survey of Canada hydrometric gauge FRASER RIVER AT BIG BAR CREEK, station 08MD013, near the Big Bar reaction ferry crossing. It reports stream level in metres and stream discharge in cubic metres per second, once an hour. Work on the river depends on the water level, so the crew lead reads the gauge before the trip. Treat the reading as one input. Confirm it with the forecast and the people on site.

The second is the Environment and Climate Change Canada weather station LILLOOET, climate station 1114619. It sits about 45 km south of the site, in the same Fraser River canyon. It reports air temperature, dew point, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and precipitation.

Both stations are already listed on the Data sources page as public data sources. Search for each station by name, open its page, and click Add to location to link it to Big Bar. Both stations now appear on the location page with their latest readings and charts.

Create a heat alert rule

Summer heat in the Fraser Canyon is a real hazard for a crew working outdoors. An alert rule turns the Lillooet air temperature into a message that reaches people in the field.

Open Alert rules, click Create alert rule, and build the rule:

1. Set the scope to the Big Bar location.
2. Choose the air temperature parameter from the Lillooet station.
3. Set the condition to above 30 °C.

Note: Warnspot currently evaluates alert rules on measured values, not forecasts. The alert rule triggers when the latest air temperature reading is above 30 °C. In the future, Warnspot will support forecast-based alert rules, which would be more useful in this scenario.

Review forecast, warnings, and road conditions

Besides the measurements from the linked data sources, Warnspot shows three more things for the location:

• A nearby PROGNOS weather forecast.
• Environment and Climate Change Canada weather warnings and statements.
• DriveBC road events near the location, such as closures, delays, and ferry notices.

The location view lists the active public alerts for the area. Examples are a wildfire evacuation order or a notice that a ferry is not in service. A crew that checks site conditions before it leaves needs to know about both kinds of notice. Seeing them next to the river gauge and the forecast puts the morning review on one page.

Define a recipient list

By default an alert rule reaches the account owner. That is the wrong person when the account owner is in the office and the crew is in the canyon.

Open Recipient lists to make a list of the people to alert. Click Create recipient list, then add the email address of every crew member. Also add a push topic that the crew subscribes to in the ntfy app. Then attach the recipient list to the heat alert rule.

Note: SMS notifications are not available in Warnspot yet. The ntfy push notification channel is a good alternative for field crews with smartphones that have mobile data or satellite internet. The ntfy app is free and open source, and works on Android, iOS, and desktop.

What the crew has now

One location holds the river gauge, the weather station, the forecast, the public alerts, and the alert rule. The morning check is one page. Confirm conditions with the official sources before work starts. The heat alert rule reaches the crew in the field instead of waiting for someone to open a browser. The same pattern works for any site with public stations nearby, and for your own sensors after you connect them through the Warnspot API.

Set up your own site

Warnspot brings public stations, forecasts, and public alerts for one place onto one page. It sends the alerts from your alert rules to the people who are there. Create an account to start your free 14-day trial and add your first location, or contact us about connecting your own field instruments. The trial needs no credit card.