Overview

As director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center in the late 1960s and early ’70s, William H. Haggard witnessed an explosion in the number of requests from attorneys needing weather data for their cases. But while the Center offered data certified by the Department of Commerce that could be submitted as evidence in a court of law, government meteorologists could not be released from work to interpret this data in the courtroom. In their place, pioneering forensic meteorologists stepped in to serve as expert witnesses. For a society enthralled by courtroom drama, forensics, and natural disasters, Weather in the Courtroom is a perfect storm: an exciting inside scoop on legendary court cases where the weather may—or may not—have played a crucial role. Haggard explores both the meteorological facts and human stories of a variety of high-profile cases among the hundreds in which, after retiring from the government, he served as an expert witness. Were the disappearance of Alaskan Congressman Nick Begich’s plane on October 16, 1972; the collapse of Tampa Bay’s Skyway Bridge on May 9, 1980; and the crash of Delta Flight 191 in Dallas/Fort Worth on August 2, 1985, natural or human-caused disasters? Haggard’s recounting of these and other litigations reveals just how critical the interpretation of weather and climate data in the courtroom is to our understanding of what happened—and who, if anyone, is at fault.  

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9781940033952

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Pick of the week. --Bill Murray WeatherBrains Asheville's 96-year-old first-time author goes to court. . . . Haggard discusses his rich, colorful, and dynamic experiences as a forensic meteorologist. His expertise as a courtroom meteorologist draws the reader into fascinating cases of related accidents ranging from commercial aviation to 'slips and falls.' --Citizen-Times For fans of the television series Law and Order, this is the weather book for you. Start with a weather-related crime (or accident), follow it with the gathering of evidence, a jury trial--often with combative lawyers and breath-holding evidence, and then wrap it all up with a verdict. Add in the twist that the gumshoe detective collecting evidence isn't a brash badge-wearing Sergeant Friday, but instead a conscientious details-orient meteorologist, often helicoptering into the scene months later, sniffing the wind and then tunneling through tomes of weather data. All together you get a very different take on classic courtroom drama. Here the weather is brought inside and put on the stand. --Canadian Meteorological Oceanographic Society

Pick of the week. --Bill Murray WeatherBrains

Author Information

William H. Haggard is a former director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center, a certified consulting meteorologist, and a fellow and honorary member of the American Meteorological Society.

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