SPIDI Technologies, LLC
Home of the SPIA® Index
The next generation in preparedness tools delivering “at a glance, in advance” weather decision support data for utilities.
General Weather Products
We offer a wide variety of general weather forecast products including air temperature, winds, ice accumulation, snow accumulation, liquid precipitation accumulation, hazardous weather outlines and more! Coupled with decades of experience in infrastructure, response management, and weather expertise, the products offered by SPIDI Technologies are second to none.
Fire and Ice
Utilities and critical infrastructure are acutely affected by the hazards produced when meteorological components align and create unique risks understood only by those with experience in the industry. Products such as the SPIA®️ Index, fire hazard outlooks, and more have been produced with decades of experience in the field.
Expert Insights
The SPIDI blog keeps you up to date on hazardous events across the country with quick to read, easy to digest posts that take decades of utility experience and condense them into just what you need to know. Truly “at a glance, in advance” decision-support information!
Become a Member Today
Get access to the SPIA® Index and other weather products today! The cost of a year of service is less than sending one crew out to replace one pole and in that year you’ll be able to stage crews, resources, and more in advance of the hazard. You’ll also get access to the SPIA® blog, with real time posts from experts on conditions affecting you today and tomorrow!
The SPIA® Index: from “idea” to “reality”
In December 2006, the Oklahoma Panhandle was beset with two back-to-back freezing rain events, roughly eight days apart. No sooner had electric and communications utility crews restored electric power to most residents after the first storm, those same customers and more lost power yet again due to a second ice and snow event. In total, between $6 million and $10 million in damages occurred during those two ice storms.
A designated liaison from the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives (OAEC) to Oklahoma Emergency Management (OEM) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Sid Sperry envisioned a forward-looking damage and impact predictability “rating system” that would incorporate forecast data from local National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices (NWS-WFOS) along with known engineering parameters for estimating utility infrastructure losses, as well as customer outage duration estimates.
Sperry shared his concept with officials from the Oklahoma Climatological Survey (OCS) at the University of Oklahoma, including the late Dr. Kenneth Crawford, who was acting OCS Director at the time. Crawford, along with officials from the Oklahoma Mesonet, encouraged Sperry to take his idea and share it with Steven Piltz, Meteorologist In Charge (MIC) of NWS Tulsa. In early January 2007, Sperry and Piltz sat down and reviewed suggested weather forecast data to be ingested into an impact algorithm, and, within hours, were creating impact graphics that could be easily interpreted and used by utility personnel as preparedness tools – days ahead of freezing rain or ice storm events.
The result: the “Sperry-Piltz Ice Accumulation® Index” or “SPIA® Index” was born. This impact Index was the first of its kind in the nation to accurately predict electric and communications infrastructure damages and potential outage durations at least 54-72 hours before an ice storm.
Today, the SPIA® Index is used by hundreds of electric and communications utilities across the United States, and by the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE). It has been recognized by citation from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), and in 2009 was recognized as the “Technical Innovation of the Year” by the American Public Works Association (APWA). It is both copyrighted and trademark registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.