RISK MANAGEMENTTIMING IS EVERYTHING. IT IS THEdifference between a melt-in-your-mouthchocolate chip cookie and a charred, biodegradable hockey puck. The differencebetween a leisurely stroll through theairport with a stop for dinner and a maddash to a missed connection. Timing canalso be the difference between paying astorm damage claim and justifiably denying or amending it based on a forensicweather analysis that identifies the actualdate of loss.
Forensic meteorologists analyze weath-
er data to reconstruct the conditions at
a given place and time. We are typically
retained by insurance companies, inde-
pendent adjusters and engineers when the
date of loss is in question. This often oc-
curs when a claim is filed on a new policy
and the adjuster suspects the damage pre-
ceded the inception date, or when damage
is reported months or years after a strong
hurricane but the property owner alleges
a date of loss associated with a more re-
cent, potentially weaker storm event.
In these contexts, forensic meteorological analysis can be used to:
1. Confirm or dispute damaging weather conditions on a single date
2. Compare two specific weather events
3. Survey an entire range of dates
Let’s take a look at examples of each
type of analysis:
DETERMINING WEATHER
CONDITIONS DURING A
SPECIFIC STORM EVENT
When examining a single weather event,
the goal is to quantify potentially dam-
aging meteorological conditions. Take,
for example, a tornadic thunderstorm
that impacted Edmond, Oklahoma on
May 19, 2013. A tornado was confirmed
with this thunderstorm, as was 1–2. 6 inch
diameter hail. Certainly, this was a storm
capable of causing significant damage.
Our consultancy was retained to deter-
mine whether the damaging conditions
associated with this thunderstorm direct-
ly impacted an insured property located
in Edmond. This property was included
in the tornado warning, and large hail
was reported a few miles to the north.
At first glance, damaging conditionscertainly seemed possible. However, anexamination of the radar data revealedthat both the hail core and the tornadicrotation remained to the north of thisproperty. These findings were furthersubstantiated by National Weather Service (NWS) storm reports of hail as wellas surveys of the tornado’s damage path.By thoroughly analyzing the avaiable
Determining the Date of Loss
By Megan D. Walker
shutterstock.com/PandePutuHadiWiguna
