The Mineralfreibad Bönnigheim is the first outdoor pool in Europe with a fully automatic thunderstorm warning system to protect bathers and staff.
"It's getting worse and worse; we've already had three thunderstorms this year in preparation. A few years ago there were also lightning strikes in the diving tower and on the facility. Our bathers expect concrete statements from the bathing staff about the current danger of thunderstorms and the progress of the bathing day. So far, unfortunately, not all visitors have always been cooperative in our subjective decisions to evacuate the pool and the duration of the interruption. It's nice that we now have a technical solution for this ...", says operations manager Dietmar Schmid.
The novel thunderstorm warning system receives data of actually measured lightning in the vicinity of the outdoor pool in real time, accurate to within a few metres. When lightning is measured at a distance relevant to the safety of the bathers, a signal is automatically sent to interrupt bathing. After the thunderstorm has passed, the pool is automatically re-opened. Each individual lightning flash is documented with second and distance accuracy to provide evidence of the events.
Due to the Iot/M2M-based safety technology, decisions in Bönnigheim are now made on the basis of factual measurement technology and defined parameters. The pool staff is relieved and the visitors are always informed about the current thunderstorm situation in the outdoor pool.