Reading 1

Unit 5- Reading 1

Page 66

The Weather Goes to Court: Forensic Meteorology

The witness testified that she had heard the defendant confess to stealing a car. She was sitting on a park bench, she said, when the defendant, speaking loudly and pointing forcefully toward the parking lot, told another man he had just “jacked that silver Toyota”.

She said she could easily overhear it because the defendant was standing only about 50 yards northeast of her. She knew it was him because he was on a small hill where she could easily see him. The prosecutor thanked her and she sat down.

It was the defense attorney’s turn. His strategy was to make the jury doubt what they had just heard. He called a new witness, a meteorologist. People throughout the courtroom wondered: Why call a weather expert? The expert confidently stated that it had been sunny with excellent visibility on the day in question.

Weather records said so. Could the previous witness have seen the defendant talking? The weather would not have been a problem, the expert said. Could she have overheard what he said? “Well, the way she described it, probably not.

The wind was a bit strong that day, out of the southwest at about 15 miles per hour. He was northeast of her and standing on a hill. Sound waves heading into wind get pushed upward. By the time they had traveled 50 yards, they would have been too high to reach her ears”.

WEATHER Backcast

This case exhibits how meteorology can be considered a branch of forensic science. The term forensics comes from a Latin word that means “arguing for or against a position”. In common modern usage it means “the practice of discovering material that can be used in court cases or other disputes”.

Sciences from anthropology to zoology have been put to forensic use. Forensic meteorology can contribute to the picture of the conditions surrounding a crime or an accident. Rather than providing a forecast of what the weather might be in the future, forensic meteorologists specialize in “backcasts” of what the weather was at a given time in the past.

CAREFUL RECORDS

Weather phenomena have been measured and carefully recorded for hundreds of years. In the United States, in many other countries daily records of air temperature, sky conditions, precipitation, and wind are available for almost any inhabited place.

What was the weather in New York like for George Washington’s 1789 inauguration as the first president? “Clear skies with a high temperature of 59° Fahrenheit.”

The Value Of An Expert

Anyone with an Internet connection can find that information in five minutes, without any assistance from a highly paid meteorologist. An expert’s true value is presenting data to orient you to the general circumstances and then interpreting that data and pointing out possibilities.

The expert analysis draws scattered facts together into a coherent picture. For example, imagine that a farmer wants his insurance company to pay for storm damage to his crops. A large section of his cornfield has been flattened. Official records say hail fell that day. He blames the hail for the damage to his crops, and his policy clearly covers hail damage.

His insurance company disputes the core argument of his case—that the damage was done by hail. The company denies the claim. The farmer, moved to action by the prospect of collecting tens of thousands of dollars, takes the company to court.

The insurance company calls in a forensic meteorologist. The company’s lawyer shows photographs of the farmer’s damaged corn-stalks, which all fell to the ground in the same direction. The destructive energy of hail, she testifies, produces damage from above not from the side.

She also says that sophisticated radar data show that the storm, as it passed over the farm, lacked the strong updrafts needed to produce hail. Hail was recorded at the weather station 30 miles away, about 6 minutes before the storm reached the farm. But in that short interval, the character of the storm changed.

This evidence has given the judge strong doubts about the farmer’s claim. These doubts are reinforced when the meteorologist explains that radar data also show an extremely strong burst of wind at the farm’s location. The judge eventually rules that the crop damage was caused not by hail but by wind. The farmer’s policy does not cover wind damage.

QUALLFLCATLONS

The tools of forensic meteorology continually get more precise, more affordable, and easier to use. Any eager entrepreneur who wants to start a weather-consulting business can buy and operate the necessary equipment.

So what ensures that someone claiming to be a forensic meteorologist really is? Neither the federal government nor any state officially licenses meteorologists. The best route to professional status is to earn the title of Certified Consulting Meteorologist from the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

Experts with that no credential have demonstrated to the AMS that they know what they are doing and are honest. Those are very good qualities to have when you step up to the witness stand in a court of law.