Wind & Tornado Claims

It can be very difficult to determine if high winds or a tornado occurred at a specific incident location.  Thunderstorms and tornadoes can be short-lived and they often go unreported on NOAA records.  A thunderstorm microburst usually lasts only 2-5 minutes and covers an area of less than 2.5 miles.  Many times severe winds in these thunderstorms aren’t recorded, don’t move over airports, or weaken by the time they are measured.  It does not mean that intense winds didn’t occur at the incident location.  Other times, a date of loss is based on a TV news report, a county weather warning, or a Local Storm Report when a thunderstorm wasn’t even close to the property.  In personal injury claims, falling trees, or scaffolding collapses, it is important to find out how high the winds were, when they occurred, and if they were well forecasted.  The way to find out what was occurring is through a reliable, site-specific analysis.

Similar to the other types of cases we work on, we can perform a detailed analysis for the exact incident location to determine how high the winds were, if a tornado occurred, or if the thunderstorms or high winds were forecasted.  If requested, we also prepare Federal Rule 26 reports that list all of the sources of data relied upon, the methodology employed, numerous images and data, and our conclusions.  These reports can be used internally to document a claim, submitted to the court with a sworn affidavit, exchanged, or given to other experts such as engineers so they can include our findings in their calculations, conclusions and reports.  Using this approach reduces the chance for a Daubert challenge or court ruling precluding crucial evidence and opinions of non-meteorologists.