Forensic Weather Services
Since 1980 Mountain States Weather Services (MSWS) has been providing attorneys, home owners and insurance investigators and others with expert witness and weather reconstruction services.
Meteorologist Jim Wirshborn has been admitted as an expert witness in numerous local and district courts applying his knowledge of weather, climate and weather forecasting to 100s of cases.
A unique feature of this service is the high density observation network of volunteer weather observers giving weather details on a small scale, often not available from other sources. In additional to the 100 plus weather observer data locations, MSWS has access to all U. S. weather observations which includes over a 1000 locations which provide hourly observations, 12,000 cooperative stations similar to the MSWS volunteer network.
Through the long term experience in making and using weather observations MSWS can provide the expertise to determine what is representative of a particular location.
Some examples...
• A dumpster blew into a main road in Fort Collins hitting a vehicle. MSWS was able to determine that winds were strong enough to move the dumpster. Using wind observations the strength of the wind substantiated and the direction of the wind helped to determine that the dumpster would move from one direction to another.
• One party said a blizzard was occurring during an automobile accident 10 miles east of Greeley, Colo. The other party said it was just flurries. MSWS records for the nearest location to the accident showed 10 inches of snow had fallen and winds had peaked at 56 mph. While no visibility data was available for the accident site or the nearest location for which snow data was available, similar snowfall amounts and winds occurred at Cheyenne airport for which detailed data was available for visibility. MSWS was able to show not only a blizzard was going on at the time of the accident but also visibility was near zero.
• An insurance investigator had a claim for hail damage on September 5. MSWS investigated and found clear skies, temperatures in the 50s and no meteorological condition that would allow for hail to occur on the date in question.
• A party was suing another for slipping on ice at an entry to a business. MSWS examined weather observations for the time of the slip and fall as well as antecedent data. The records showed no snow falling at the date and time in question, however, a period of extremely cold weather and snowy conditions had occurred earlier in this January week. MSWS was able to show with the weather records little or no melting would have occurred prior to the slip and fall, that little melting will occur with the low sun angles at that time of the year and the north exposure of the sidewalk in the shadow of a building will preclude much melting even if warm temperatures had been observed.
For more information on how Forensic Meteorology may be applied to your weather related problem contact Jim Wirshborn, Chief Meteorologist, Mountain States Weather Services, 820 S. Summit View Drive, Fort Collins, CO 80524-3670, phone 970 484-9463, email msws@msws.net
Mountain States Weather Services
820 S. Summit View Drive
Fort Collins, CO 80524-3670