James is an international business consultant and I certainly appreciate his kind remarks.  My book, Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather is here . And, its companion book, When the Sirens Were Silent  is here . With regard to the latter book, the paper book sold out a long time ago. But, you can still read it without a Kindle by using the Amazon Cloud Reader.  If your company would like assistance weatherproofing your business, please go here . I'd be happy to talk with you. 

Did an inch and a quarter of rain really cause this? When I saw this and other headlines about a flood and wind damage, I recalled Monday's derecho . While winds of 50 to perhaps 70 mph occurred in the area, I didn't recall any unusual rains. So, I did a little investigation. The derecho at 8:26pm EDT Below is an image from the South Bend National Weather Service (NWS) radar. It estimates rainfall with each scan. Its estimate was about 1.2 inches after the storm had moved out of the area. The NWS and University of Oklahoma developed a system that combines radar, rain gauges and data to create a more sophisticated rainfall amount estimate.  It displays an amount between 1.0 and 1.5 inches, which is consistent with the South Bend radar's estimate.  So, this may not be the full story: 'Severe thunderstorms and heavy rains came through southwestern Michigan on Monday evening, resulting in high winds, hail, power outages and flood damage throughout the area,' Abbott sai...

Arrowhead Stadium in the snow. Photo of by Tristan via Twitter AccuWeather  recently published an interesting article and poll on the subject of the NFL and its policy of playing most games during adverse weather. Before I make my suggestions I want to make a couple of clarifications.  The 2018 Miami-Tennessee game was delayed by lightning, not just by rain.  NFL games are  rescheduled in event of a hurricane. They did just that in 2005 when Hurricane Wilma threatened a Chiefs v Miami game.  My opinion: Things should continue as they are. NFL games should continue to be played in the snow and cold and similar conditions. It is part of the tradition of the game. However, I would make two changes: Lightning delays often last too long in both college football and the NFL. This is due to the both using outdated science.  As the article points out, there is far too much risk and disorganization when combining tornado risks and football stadiums full of fans...

The Associated Press recently published a story discussing how New York City has a higher relative  risk of a major tornado than, say, Wichita. The story is here .  The city with the largest number of tornado fatalities is not in Kansas or Oklahoma. It is St. Louis.  Philadelphia, Washington and NYC are vulnerable to strong tornadoes.  I suggest reading the story and factoring it into your risk mitigation plans . 

Book One of Our Presentations on  Weather Risk Management  As many of you know, I create customized live presentations for companies and organizations that want to mitigate the business risks of extreme weather. Each presentation is tailored each special customer and their industry. Given the COVID situation, we can present our information in-person or online. For more information, please call: Ms. Mindy East at BaronRidge Productions mindy@baronridgeproductions.com (316) 409-6498

Great article here . Now that it is 2020, make sure you are well-equipped before you head out cross-country skiing or other outdoor expedition.

The Hollywood Reporter   has this quote from Indiana State Fair officials pertaining to the stage collapse: "We were in constant contact with the National Weather Service, and we were constantly trying to figure out what was coming, when it was coming and get people to a position of safety as best we could with the information that we had," Klotz says. This was the problem in a nutshell: The Fair officials were "playing meteorologist" -- trying to figure out for themselves what was coming.   In the "weather and business" seminars I have been conducting across the country this summer, I talk about "best practices" for businesses when extreme weather threatens.  Best practice #1 is get out of the weather business. Meteorology is a complex science and determining the safety of thousands of people is not a role for amateurs.  Using Saturday night as an example, I understand how the "fine line" (on radar) representing the "gust...

Before reading this posting, please keep in mind that information on this event is very preliminary and some of the media reporting on which this posting is based may be inaccurate or incomplete. I'm writing this because there are numerous State Fairs and other outdoor events in progress both now and during the rest of summer. My goal, as always, is to provide information that can save lives. According to The Indianapolis Star , five have died and forty are injured -- some very seriously -- as a result of the collapse of the stage at the Indiana State Fair yesterday evening. Below is video of the collapse. In the tape, we see lighting in the distance and blowing dust but no rain at the fairgrounds. That immediately suggested to me that a thunderstorm-generated "gust front" had moved through causing the very strong winds. This is verified by radar. The thin light blue line is known to radar meteorologists as a "fine line" (arrows) which represents very st...

From the American Meteorological Society's conference on storm warnings in Oklahoma City we learn that TV tornado warnings -- and, how well the TV stations in the market are equipped with the latest technology really does make a difference in the casualty rates of tornadoes. A paper by Sutter and Simmons of the University of Texas examined numerous variables in an attempt to find out what was most important in cutting the number of deaths and injuries in tornadoes. Turns out the #1 indicator was the number of station-owned Doppler radars (as a proxy for how well TV stations in the markets were equipped overall to cover violent weather). The second largest indicator was income, which is something demographers have known for a long time. The higher the average income, the more robust the housing stock and the better sheltered people are for tornadoes.  We learned that 7% of the housing in the U.S. is mobile homes but they account for 43% of tornado fatalities! One somewhat amus...

Yesterday's New York Times  has a map of relative risks for more than 300 cities that you can access here . The only quibble I would have is the low risk they assign to Boulder, Colorado. There is a high potential risk of flash flooding there -- it just hasn't occurred recently. I would put them in the overall "medium" rather than "low" category. Finally, they don't take into account ice storms and sudden blizzards. As the people of Kentucky can tell you, it is possible to be without electricity for more than three weeks (!) after a major ice storm (this occurred in late-January and February, 2009). Otherwise, the map seems reasonable.

I'll be addressing the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Carolinas Chapter, over lunch in Charlotte Thursday. Details here . Originally, I was to talk about hurricanes. I'm going to add information about Saturday's tornado outbreak in the Carolinas. Looking forward to it!

The Wall Street Journal  has an online article about new fees being charged by just about every airline with more to come. The article is here (subscription may be required). Something that caught my eye is that airlines are planning to offer weather insurance. Given how poorly airlines react to weather, it seems farfetched but apparently it is true. Here is what the Journal says: Airsavings S.A., a Paris-based firm that creates products for airlines to sell, thinks the industry "is at the end of the road" for charging for once-free services, says CEO Raphael Bejar. Now, carriers' emphasis is shifting to new services that allow flyers to customize their travel, he says. Airsavings offers weather insurance and runs a travel concierge service that consumers can buy on a per-trip basis. It recommends restaurants, arranges for theater tickets and re-books travel when necessary . I did a little research and found out more about the "weather insurance" product: ...

I am skeptical of this story that claims, " Technology created 50 rainstorms in Abu Dhabi's Al Ain region last year ." Yes, putting a charge on the particles would attract moisture, that seems solid. However, I don't know where the additional moisture to create the storms would have come from, after all it still is the desert. The problem with evaluating intentional or inadvertent weather modification is there is no "parallel atmosphere" that we can experiment with to see what would have naturally occurred absent, in this case, the charged particles.  The explanation for more rain occurring than the long term average may have just been a relatively wet year. Man has wanted to intentionally influence the weather since almost the beginning of time. We'll see whether this claim can withstand scientific scrutiny.

Jack Williams has a great article about extreme weather and hospitals in the November/December 2010 issue of Weatherwise. The online version of the article is here .

As the last of the autumn color disappears, it is time to think about making sure your car is winterized. A little preparation can prevent major problems in a few weeks.

I want to introduce you to two of the hardest working people around, Emily Hunter (left), the executive director of Symphony in the Flint Hills and Linda Craighead the site manager of the event. While everyone was having a great time, these two were in constant motion behind the scenes to insure everything went well.  From 9 o’clock Saturday morning through 10:45pm, the three of us worked together, along with the meteorologists at WeatherData’s forecast center, to insure the 7,200 people (a complete sell-out) were safe in the remote location. Lightning, hail, high winds, tornadoes and flash floods were all possible the day of the event because of a stationary front right over the site and extremely unstable air to the south.  I spent virtually the entire day glued to the computer because of volatility of the weather situation. At 10:30am, when we had the official weather meeting, things looked grim at first glance: There were thunderstorms 9 miles to the southeast and 12 m...

The folks at Disaster Recovery Journal have an article  of mine up at their web site on why private sector weather companies are usually a better choice for businesses than using the National Weather Service warnings intended for the public. You can learn more about WeatherData's services for businesses at WeatherData's web site.  

The Wall Street Journal  reminds us of the economic importance of weather. NEW YORK -- Monday marked the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and the snowstorm that blanketed the East Coast this weekend was just the latest reminder that weather holds a tremendous sway on economic activity. Winter's impact presents a particularly big risk to the outlook. The second half of 2009 has seen fairly robust activity as the U.S. has come out of recession. But if the weather drags down first-quarter growth, expect to hear more talk of a double-dip downturn. Economists will have to separate the problems caused by Mother Nature versus the longer-term weakness from deleveraging and high unemployment. More here.

In my forthcoming book, Warnings:  The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather,  I tell the story of how weather science has created an highly effective system that saves countless lives during hurricanes and tornadoes, and prevents airline crashes. I did not include winter storms because I doubted that anyone would want to read a 1,000 page book.  That said, meteorology has made tremendous strides with all  types of storms.  How much progress?  Take a look at this map of WeatherData's forecast of the weekend blizzard with the actual snowfall amounts in red numerals (click on image to enlarge). Pretty amazing, isn't it? Our presentations teach businesses how to adapt the best of weather science into their operation and risk management strategies to increase both profits and safety.  You can learn more at our  web site .    Call us today or after the holidays.