Before the Hail Falls, There’s a Notification

Hail falls from the sky, but the race to avoid its damage can begin a few minutes earlier — on a smartphone.

That is the idea behind Grandinometro, an app developed by 21-year-old Davide Agostini, an economics student from Padua, northern Italy. In recent weeks, the app has seen a sharp increase in users, surpassing 4,000 after its user base nearly tripled within just a few hours.

Predicting hail before it arrives

The app’s growth has come amid a series of severe storms that have hit northeastern Italy. “This is a social app created with a very specific goal: to help people make use of the tools available to avoid damage caused by hailstorms,” Agostini says.

Grandinometro sent alerts during a powerful hailstorm on August 28 that hit areas including the southern part of the Verona province and the province of Padua.

“We were able to predict it through our alert system, and several users had enough time to move their cars under cover. Then they called us to tell us about their experience.”

The app operates across Italy and has also issued warnings for a recent severe hailstorm in the Teramo area, in central Italy.

“Even in that case, we managed to send an alert to our users in time,” Agostini says. “That allowed more people to move their cars to safety.”

From weather radar to user reports

The idea was born from a personal experience. On July 22, 2023, when Agostini was 18, he was in Camposampiero, near Padua, playing music outdoors. When he returned home to Vigonza, he saw the damage caused by a hailstorm.

“I didn’t even have a car yet, but I couldn’t stop thinking about that destroyed roof. I thought I had to do something.”

With a background in information technology, Agostini began working on the project. Today, he studies economics, works as a sales representative for a utilities company and continues to develop the app — a project that started almost as a bet and gradually evolved into a service for the wider community.

The system starts with weather radar data, which can be extremely valuable but is often difficult for nonexperts to interpret. Grandinometro attempts to turn that information into simple, immediate warnings.

“Our algorithm combines radar data with reports from Civil Protection authorities and reports submitted by users themselves. The system processes all these elements and can send a predictive notification directly to a smartphone,” Agostini says.

The app’s social component is what makes the system dynamic. User reports help update the picture on the ground and track the evolution of individual storm cells.

Once the data have been processed, the app calculates which areas could be hit next and can warn users who are in the storm’s projected path.

A free service

The service is free. In addition to sending alerts, it also identifies the nearest covered locations where users can seek shelter. There are no advertisements or paid features, although users can make voluntary donations.

“Over the past month, I’ve almost managed to cover the operating costs. I would like to build a system that can sustain itself, but Grandinometro must remain free and accessible to everyone.”

The project is still evolving. Agostini is working to make the algorithm more accurate, teaching it to distinguish storms according to their intensity and the characteristics of individual storm cells.

To receive alerts, users simply download Grandinometro, select a location or enable geolocation.

A notification received at the right moment can buy just a few minutes — but those may be enough to move a car under cover and potentially avoid thousands of euros in damage.

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