Forensic Weather Consultants

What Forensic Weather Consultants does

Forensic Weather Consultants is a U.S.-based forensic meteorology firm founded in 1999 by Howard Altschule, headquartered in Guilderland, New York, and operated as a privately held LLC. The company provides site-specific historical weather analyses, written expert reports, notarized affidavits, depositions, and live trial testimony to plaintiff and defense attorneys, insurance carriers and adjusters, engineers, and government agencies involved in weather-related claims and litigation. Since inception the firm has been retained more than 8,700 times and has delivered testimony in over 130 trials and 130 depositions across all U.S. states and selected international matters (Mexico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Africa, Asia), with consistent admissibility as an expert in Federal, Supreme, Circuit, and U.S. Military Courts.

The core technology stack combines Color Doppler Radar imagery, dual polarization data, NOAA and National Weather Service feeds, USGS water gauge data, and high-resolution U.S. government computer modeling to reconstruct weather conditions at exact incident locations rather than relying on nearest-airport observations. The firm holds a patent on Automated Hurricane Reports (launched 2022) that produces hour-by-hour wind, gust, storm tide, rainfall, and barometric pressure tables for specific addresses, alongside Automated Hail Impact Reports and daily Hail Swath Maps delivered as Google Earth .kmz overlays. The team comprises multiple Certified Consulting Meteorologists (CCM) with prior experience at the National Weather Service, Department of Homeland Security operations, New York State Mesonet, and broadcast meteorology.

The revenue model is a hybrid of professional-services billing and automated transactional products. Consulting work is sold via retainer agreements (initial $1,500 deposit, $500 minimum non-refundable) against hourly expert rates of $330 (standard), $495 (rush, 3-4 business days), and $660 (super-rush, 1-2 business days), with deposition testimony at $430/hour (2-hour minimum) and live trial testimony at $3,600/day. Automated products are sold directly online through a self-service account portal at per-report unit pricing ($255.72 per Automated Hurricane Report; $615.17 per Hail Swath Map date). Go-to-market combines sales-led referral relationships with attorneys and insurance carriers, a self-service e-commerce channel for standardized products, and thought-leadership content in industry publications and major media.

Name

Forensic Weather Consultants

Legal name

Forensic Weather Consultants, LLC

Website

https://weatherconsultants.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Forensic Weather Consultants is a forensic meteorology firm founded in 1999 that provides site-specific weather analyses, expert reports, and trial testimony to attorneys, insurance carriers, and government agencies involved in weather-related claims and litigation across the United States.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Forensic Meteorology Services

NAICS

Testing Laboratories and Services (54138)

SIC

Services-Testing Laboratories (8734)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYBPAHALAG

Litigation Support & Expert Witness Services

Business & Public Services/Professional Services (Legal, Accounting, Consulting)/Research, Analytics & Expert Services

SECONDARYBPAHAIAO

Forensic Engineering & Failure Analysis Consulting

Business & Public Services/Professional Services (Legal, Accounting, Consulting)/Engineering & Technical Consulting

Keywords

• Forensic meteorology services
• Weather expert witness
• Insurance weather analysis
• Hail impact reports
• Hurricane wind analysis

Headquarters

HQ city

Guilderland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Forensic Weather Consulting Services: Billable hourly consulting services including weather records, in-depth analysis, consultation, written expert reports, affidavits, document review, and expert testimony. Rates are $330/hour standard, $495/hour rush, $660/hour super-rush. Deposition testimony at $430/hour (2-hour minimum). Live trial testimony at $3,600/day.
2. Automated Hurricane Reports: Pre-priced automated reports for specific addresses providing hurricane/tropical storm weather data including wind speeds, gusts, storm tide, rainfall, and barometric pressure. Sold per report through account website.
3. Automated Hail Impact Reports: Self-service automated reports generating hail size and occurrence dates for specific addresses or coordinates using NOAA radar data. Purchased online per report.
4. Hail Swath Maps: Daily hail swath maps showing color-contoured hail sizes across the U.S. and Canada, sold per date ($615.17 per date including processing fee). Overlaid on Google Earth.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Forensic Weather Consultants provides site-specific forensic meteorology analysis and expert witness testimony for legal proceedings and insurance claims. The firm combines professional consulting meteorologists with patented automated reports (Hail Impact Reports, Hurricane Reports, Hail Swath Maps) to support plaintiff and defense attorneys, insurance carriers, engineers, and government agencies in litigation and claims involving weather events.

Product overview

Forensic Weather Consultants offers a dual-model product portfolio combining automated digital reports and professional consulting services. The automated product line includes three core offerings: Automated Hail Impact Reports (providing hail event data via Doppler radar), Automated Hurricane Reports (hour-by-hour tropical cyclone weather data using patented processes and U.S. government modeling), and Hail Swath Maps (.kmz files for Google Earth visualization). The professional services tier encompasses comprehensive forensic weather consulting retainer services for insurance and legal professionals, including site-specific meteorological analyses, written expert reports, notarized affidavits, and expert testimony. Specialized consulting offerings address distinct claim types: slip and fall analysis, hail damage forensic reports, hurricane wind/storm surge analysis, wind and tornado reports, flood/rainfall studies, motor vehicle accident analysis, and temperature-related case analysis. The company serves insurance carriers, plaintiff and defense attorneys, engineers, adjusters, and government agencies requiring historical weather data for litigation, claims adjustment, and dispute resolution.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Automated Hail Impact Reports Patented automated reports providing site-specific hail impact analysis for a given address and date, used by attorneys and insurance professionals to document hail damage events. Each report covers up to a 5-mile radius with parcel and address-level precision.
• Automated Hurricane Reports Patented automated reports delivering hurricane impact and wind analysis for a specific address and date, used in property damage litigation and insurance claims. Covers historical hurricane data with site-specific evaluation.
• Hail Swath Maps
• Forensic Weather Consulting Retainer Services
• Expert Witness Testimony and Depositions

Quantifiable outcome

• 8,700+ claims and lawsuits handled since 1999
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability3 records

Feature4 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• DTN: DTN provides agriculture, energy, and weather-driven business intelligence including severe weather alerting and analytics. It overlaps with FWC through insurance and commodity-weather insight rather than courtroom expert services.
• StormGeo: StormGeo is a global commercial weather provider serving shipping, energy, insurance, and media with forecast, routing, and risk analytics. It competes in adjacent enterprise weather rather than narrow U.S. forensic casework.
• The Weather Company (an IBM Business): The Weather Company, owned by IBM, operates a major consumer and enterprise weather platform supplying forecast and historical data products. It is a broad incumbent adjacent to FWC's specialized forensic practice.
• Aon / Impact Forecasting: Aon's Impact Forecasting unit delivers catastrophe models and weather-risk analytics for insurance carriers. It overlaps with FWC on insurance severe-weather analysis but at enterprise scale rather than per-case forensic work.
• AccuWeather (Enterprise): AccuWeather operates a large enterprise and forensic division providing site-specific weather data and expert services for legal and insurance clients. It is a broader incumbent with deeper resources than FWC's boutique model.

Direct peers

• WeatherWorks: WeatherWorks is a private commercial meteorology firm providing forensic weather consulting, expert witness services, and site-specific analyses for attorneys and insurance carriers. It is the closest direct peer to FWC in the U.S. forensic meteorology niche.
• BAM Weather (BAMWX): BAM Weather is a private commercial weather company offering forensic/expert meteorological reports, storm-based analytics, and decision support for legal, insurance, and enterprise clients, overlapping FWC's core legal/insurance casework.

Others

• Weather Underground (Insurance/Enterprise): Weather Underground operates a deep historical weather data archive used by legal and insurance professionals for case research. It is an upstream data resource rather than a competing forensic expert.
• CoreLogic (Hail/Wind Verification): CoreLogic offers property-data and hail/wind verification products used by insurance carriers to triage claims. It is an enabling data vendor rather than a direct forensic expert, complementary to FWC's expert services.
• Verisk Property Insights: Verisk provides insurance analytics including property risk and peril-verification datasets. It supplies carriers with tools that may substitute for some routine FWC lookups but does not offer expert testimony.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/FWCWeather
• Facebookfacebook.com/fwcweather
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/forensic-weather-consultants

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Forensic Weather Consultants