NIGP 96188: Weather Forecasting Services

NIGP 96188 Weather Forecasting Services, an Item code, covers utility-grade weather data systems, real-time meteorological support, and decision-support software that state and local governments procure to enhance operational planning, emergency response, and infrastructure risk assessment. State and local solicitations under this code track toward integrated forecast platforms—combining real-time data feeds, predictive modeling, and dashboard interfaces—rather than standalone weather observation or reporting. Issuing bodies include municipalities (city utilities and public works), county government (regional watershed and emergency management), and special-purpose districts. The City of Austin and Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners both appear as recent solicitors of sophisticated software platforms; smaller municipal projects such as the City of DeBary's park irrigation infrastructure improvements also surface under related work scopes involving environmental data integration.

The geographic spread of recent activity spans Florida (Hillsborough County, City of DeBary) and Texas (City of Austin). The City of Austin issued RFP1100LLM3010 on September 28, 2026, seeking a weather forecasting and decision dashboard for Austin Energy with proposals due November 5, 2026 at 2:00 P.M. CST; the scope includes 24/7/365 meteorologist support, real-time data integration with a 15-minute transmission interval to the utility's Advanced Distribution Management System, 99.99% availability uptime, and pricing weighted at 20 evaluation points alongside experience (35 points) and solution concept (25 points), with local-business and small-business preferences available worth up to 10 points each. Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners posted RFP2600364 on August 14, 2026, for a compound flood forecasting and impact-analysis system across county watersheds at an estimated $850,000 over four years, with proposals due September 11, 2026; two addenda issued August 25 and August 28, 2026 revised professional-engineer and insurance requirements, and six proposals had been received by September 30, 2026. Both solicitations impose rigorous cybersecurity compliance (NIST 800-53, FedRAMP, TX-RAMP, SOC 2 Type II, AES-256 encryption, multi-factor authentication) and require cloud-based delivery with secure web access.