What Does a Forensic Meteorologist Do And Why Would You Need One?   Forensic meteorologists reconstruct past weather conditions surrounding specific events. Lawyers and insurance companies use forensic meteorologists to determine if, for example, fog was thick enough to severly limit visibility at the time of an accident; if a sidewalk was icy; or if glare could have blinded a driver, causing an accident. It seems simple enough to determine whether glare was a factor, but were there clouds present? What type? Enough to cut the glare? How far can the sun rise above the horizon before glare is a problem? An icy sidewalk also seems easy enough to predict, but under some conditions, a sidewalk on a southwest-facing hill may not ice up even during a freezing rain!   And in some cases, events take place in an area not close to observation points where surface data is collected. An expert in forensic meteorology knows what data to collect and how to interpolate the data to cover the location of the event.   Forensic meteorology entails much more than reading readily available surface weather data, because only an expert in forensic meteorology knows what less obvious factors must be considered in each case and has the expertise and resources to collect and analyze all the relevant data. Home