Dr. “Hurricane Hal” Needham
Extreme Weather and Disaster Scientist
Extreme Weather and Disaster Scientist
About Hurricane Hal
Dr. “Hurricane Hal” Needham is an Extreme Weather and Disaster Scientist specializing in data-driven risk analysis and forensic analysis of storm impacts. He provides professional services for extreme weather litigation, including expert witness testimony and professional report writing.
Dr. Needham has conducted extensive field work related to extreme weather events and natural disasters, including field work in 23 hurricanes, numerous severe thunderstorm outbreaks, extreme winter weather related to heavy snow loads and cold temperatures, heavy rainfall events in multiple states, and international field work ranging from hurricanes in Mexico to earthquakes in North Africa.
He has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on topics related to extreme flood analysis and has been featured as an expert on mainstream media, including BBC, PBS, The Weather Channel, CNN, Fox Weather and other sources. He runs U-Surge, the international storm surge database, and hosts the GeoTrek podcast, a top-rated podcast on the topic of natural disasters.
Recipe for Risk Analysis
Extreme weather and natural disasters inflict catastrophic loss of life and massive financial losses as they blindside society every year. The Recipe for Risk Analysis provides three ingredients that greatly reduce losses in disaster-prone areas. The first ingredient is looking through a Deep History Lens to identify past extreme weather events in a location. This step provides a long-term perspective about extreme events that have occurred in a location over the past 150-200 years. The second ingredient requires finding extreme weather events that have occurred in a regional neighborhood. This step addresses patterns of randomness, realizing that disasters of equal magnitude can happen anywhere in regions with a similar physical geography. The risk baseline revealed in the first two ingredients is shifted to account for the third ingredient, environmental change. Land use development, changes to structural flood protection and drainage, and climate change shift long-term disaster risk baselines, and must be accounted for. Join Dr. "Hurricane Hal" Needham for a presentation on the Recipe for Risk Analysis that includes personal stories from two decades of work in the weather and climate industry
Dr. “Hurricane Hal” Needham is an Extreme Weather and Disaster Scientist specializing in data-driven risk analysis and forensic analysis of storm impacts. He provides professional services for extreme weather litigation, including expert witness testimony and professional report writing.
Dr. Needham has conducted extensive field work related to extreme weather events and natural disasters, including field work in 23 hurricanes, numerous severe thunderstorm outbreaks, extreme winter weather related to heavy snow loads and cold temperatures, heavy rainfall events in multiple states, and international field work ranging from hurricanes in Mexico to earthquakes in North Africa.
He has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on topics related to extreme flood analysis and has been featured as an expert on mainstream media, including BBC, PBS, The Weather Channel, CNN, Fox Weather and other sources. He runs U-Surge, the international storm surge database, and hosts the GeoTrek podcast, a top-rated podcast on the topic of natural disasters.
Recipe for Risk Analysis
Extreme weather and natural disasters inflict catastrophic loss of life and massive financial losses as they blindside society every year. The Recipe for Risk Analysis provides three ingredients that greatly reduce losses in disaster-prone areas. The first ingredient is looking through a Deep History Lens to identify past extreme weather events in a location. This step provides a long-term perspective about extreme events that have occurred in a location over the past 150-200 years. The second ingredient requires finding extreme weather events that have occurred in a regional neighborhood. This step addresses patterns of randomness, realizing that disasters of equal magnitude can happen anywhere in regions with a similar physical geography. The risk baseline revealed in the first two ingredients is shifted to account for the third ingredient, environmental change. Land use development, changes to structural flood protection and drainage, and climate change shift long-term disaster risk baselines, and must be accounted for. Join Dr. "Hurricane Hal" Needham for a presentation on the Recipe for Risk Analysis that includes personal stories from two decades of work in the weather and climate industry