Forensic Meteorology Definition of Forensic Merriam Webster relating

Forensic Meteorology § Definition of Forensic (Merriam Webster): – relating to or dealing with the application of scientific knowledge to legal problems <forensic medicine> <forensic science> <forensic pathologist> <forensic experts>… {forensic meteorologist!} – the scientific study of weather, applied to the process of reconstructing weather events for a certain time and location (Wikipedia)

Forensic Meteorology § Common Met Data – METARS – Cooperative Observations § Observation Inconsistencies § NWS form B-91

Forensic Meteorology § COOP Data – Time of observation varies between sites, and sometimes changes for a specific site: § 2 highs/lows from 1 event § Precipitation timing § What is a “day? ” – Often missing data – Period of record: sites come and go – Data Archive

Forensic Meteorology § Data Sources – – – NCEI good starting point COOP(http: //www. ncdc. noaa. gov/IPS/coop. html) METAR 1)(https: //www. ncdc. noaa. gov/data-access/ land-based-station-data/land-based-datasets/ quality-controlled-local-climatological-data-qclcd) 2)(https: //mesonet. agron. iastate. edu/request/download. phtml) – Radar Data (https: //www. ncdc. noaa. gov/nexradinv/) – Storm Events Data (https: //www. ncdc. noaa. gov/stormevents/) – Local Climate Summaries (http: //www. ncdc. noaa. gov/IPS/lcd. html) – Sunrise/Sunset Info (https: //www. sunrisesunset. com/USA/) – Sounding Data (http: //weather. uwyo. edu/upperair/sounding. html) – National Snow Analysis (http: //www. nohrsc. noaa. gov/nsa/)

Forensic Meteorology § Investigation / Discovery – State the claim/request: why are you here? – State the data sources you used – State any assumptions you made and the scientific justification for them – State any potential errors – State whether the data supports the claim/request – State if any additional data sources may be needed or helpful in the case