Some Perils of Do-It-Yourself ( DIY ) Weather
By Matthew J . Bunkers , Ph . D ., Certified Consulting Meteorologist
Although do-it-yourself ( DIY ) weather can be tempting for attorneys , because it is quick and inexpensive to obtain , the information obtained from DIY weather can be highly misleading . One source of DIY weather is from the www . timeanddate . com ( TAD ) website . I have worked on two recent personal injury cases where opposing counsel obtained historical weather information from the TAD website . In both cases , the attorneys thought they had weather information for a smaller community where the slip and fall occurred . However , the actual weather information was from locations 35 to 55 miles away from the two sites where the slips and falls occurred . This was critical to the outcome of the cases . Specifically , the weather information from these distant weather stations ( 35 to 55 miles away ) made it appear the weather was different at the sites compared to that of much closer , representative weather stations that I uncovered during my investigations ( i . e ., within 0.5 to 2 miles of the sites ).
How can this be ? Apparently , the TAD website has an algorithm that searches for the closest official FAA / NWS recording station to the location that is being sought . When that station is found , the TAD website will list the weather data as if it were from the actual location that was entered in the search . Even so , the location of the actual official reporting station will be listed in small / fine print embedded near the top of the first page , so it is quite easy to miss . However , as a certified consulting meteorologist , it has been straightforward for me to demonstrate that this distant weather information is unrepresentative of the location of the slip and fall . Moreover , all weather stations have metadata ( i . e ., data about data ) that should list the station latitude , longitude , and elevation . The TAD website does not provide
Figure 1 . Hoover , S . D ., weather graph based on a search for August 2013 from the TAD website ( https :// www . timeanddate . com / weather /@ 5765694 / historic ? month = 8 & year = 2013 ).
this information and , therefore , can be easily subjected to mischaracterization .
Here is an example . As a meteorologist who has lived in western South Dakota since 1988 , I know that Hoover is a rather small unincorporated community in Butte County . I also know there is no official hourly reporting weather station there . Nevertheless , if I go to the TAD website and request historical data for August 2013 for Hoover , it will immediately render it for me ( Fig . 1 ). The bold header near the top of the page exclaims “ August 2013 Weather in Hoover – Graph ” and farther down ( not shown in Fig . 1 ) the page states “ Hoover Weather History for August 1 , 2013 .” Note , however , near the top of Fig . 1 in small print it states : “ Weather station : Ellsworth Air Force Base , USA .” The Ellsworth Air Force Base weather station is 67 miles south of Hoover ! That is not what you expected , was it ?
The takeaway from this experience for me is two-fold . First , if you are an attorney who relies on weather information from the TAD website , be extremely cautious about its authenticity . You could easily be misled into believing the weather is for your site of interest , but in reality , it is for a location many tens of miles away from the actual site . Second , if you are an attorney who is presented with weather information by opposing counsel who used the TAD website to obtain it , be very , very skeptical in accepting that information . Again , it is highly likely the weather information is not for the site it is claimed to be .
In summary , there may be times when non-meteorologists can get away with DIY weather , but using the TAD website generally is not one of those circumstances . Cases like these are when the role of a certified consulting meteorologist becomes especially important in order to provide accurate and reliable weather information . Note that some DIY sources may be useful for a broad , general understanding of weather conditions across a large area . However , when accurate and precise weather information for a specific site is required , all DIY weather sources will independently fall short of a professional meteorologist ’ s expertise .
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