What are Certified Consulting Meteorologists
and What Can They Provide to Help Your Case?
By Matthew J. Bunkers, Ph.D., CCM
Northern Plains Weather Services
A consulting meteorologist is a person who provides professional
meteorological services to a client. The services include past, present,
or future weather and/or climate information. Furthermore, a
forensic meteorologist is a consulting meteorologist who interprets
weather or climate information to help with litigation. Lawyers are
the most common clients, and cases are often related to accidents
(e.g., slips and falls, car accidents/crashes), insurance claims (e.g.,
crops, event protection), and lawsuits (e.g., property damage). Other
clients may come from the construction and insurance sectors, among
several others.
A certified consulting meteorologist (CCM) is a meteorologist who
has demonstrated certain knowledge, experience, and character to be
a consultant by going through a rigorous exam process administered
by the American Meteorological Society. This CCM designation
is akin to certification in the fields of accountancy, architecture,
engineering, marketing, and medicine. Note that certification is not
the same as being licensed, and not all consulting meteorologists have
their CCM designation.
A CCM typically is not needed when the weather situation is
straightforward and/or weather information is readily available at
the location and time of interest. However, CCMs become especially
valuable when weather information has to be pieced together (i.e.,
extrapolated or interpolated) from various sources and times to a
specific location where weather information generally is lacking. In
this case, a CCM uses her/his experience and expertise to interpret
all available information and recreate the weather that happened for
the case of interest.
There are many resources at the CCM’s disposal. Common
datasets include surface observations, climate reports, severe storm
reports, radar data, lightning data, and satellite imagery. Other
datasets include numerical weather prediction models, surface road
temperature data, and flood frequency analyses (among others). There
also are several tools to evaluate these various input datasets in order
to seek out potential relationships in the data.
The time a CCM spends on a case can be as little as two to four
hours if only some basic data and analyses are needed. In other cases,
where more detailed analyses and a formal report are needed, time
invested can be from six to 14 hours. If site visits, extra analyses,
affidavits, depositions, and/or trials are involved, a CCM can
spend considerably more time on the case. In most cases, an initial
assessment on the potential role the weather played can be made
fairly quickly, helping the clients determine whether retaining a
CCM would be worthwhile for their case of interest.
Malpractice and Professional
DISCIPLINARY DEFENSE
NORTHERN PLAINS
WEATHER SERVICES
Dr. Matthew Bunkers of Northern Plains Weather
Services is a certified consulting meteorologist
(CCM) and forensic meteorologist with over 25 years
of weather analysis and forecasting experience.
He can provide reports, depositions, and
testimony in the areas of weather and forecasting,
severe summer and winter storms, flooding,
applied climatology and meteorology, agriculture
meteorology, and statistics. More information is
provided at http://npweather.com, and you can
contact Matt at [email protected] or
605.390.7243.
RONALD H. M�LEAN
[email protected]
PETER W. ZUGER
[email protected]
Experienced in defending lawyers
with disciplinary complaints
and malpractice actions.
701-232-8957 • serklandlaw.com
Fax: 701-237-4049 • 10 Roberts St. N., PO Box 6017, Fargo ND 58108-6017
32 THE GAVEL