A TYPICAL CALL TO HAILWATCH might begin something like this : "Hi, I'm calling from ABC Insurance, and we're trying to verify if hail occurred at 100 Main Street, Anytown, U.S. on May 1, 2010. Can you help?" Of course our answer is a resounding "yes."

One of the most common problems with verification of severe weather and the geographic location s impacted has to do with the availability of local storm reports for the event in question. The National Weather Service (NWS) compiles thousands of eyewitness reports of severe weather and related damage from a variety of sources, including storm spotters, law enforcement, emergency management, local news media, and the general public - to name a few. This preliminary information is then made available online for public viewing and research. The problem comes into play when verification of a particular storm event goes unreported or the report(s) themselves are erroneous in terms of location or magnitude.

To illustrate t his point further, let's consider the following scenario: John Doe is sitting at home one evening when a severe thunderstorm producing golf ball sized hailstones as large as 1.75 inches pelts his property for nearly 10 minutes. He doesn’t' t know how to make an official storm report to the NWS and simply watches the storm pass through. Three miles away, a storm spotter reports nickel sized (0.88-i inch) hail to the NWS as the storm begins to weaken.

John performs a quick visual inspection of his property after the hailstorm. However, he doesn't find any obvious damage to his homestead, so no further action is taken. A year later, John purchases new gutters for his home and is surprised when the installer point s out a significant amount of hail damage to the roof. John contacts his insurance company, and a hail claim is initiated.

To verify his claim, John's insurance agency contacts HailWatch to order a HailSWATH report with John's address and potential date of loss. Although the NWS only shows one official 0.88- inch hail report for the date of the event in John's city, the HailSWATH report confirms John's house most likely experienced severe hail, as his home is plotted on the report along with the path of hail rendered over Google™Maps. The report is delivered to John's insurance company online and as a convenient PDF within 48 hours of the order. This report allows John's insurance company to verify that the damage on John's roof was indeed caused by severe hail. A replacement roof is then ordered.

A division of AnythingWeather Communications, Inc., HailWatch was founded in1995 as a weather data provider. It works

with a variety of different industries to deliver value-added meteoro logical information analysis of damaging weather events.HailWatch services include post-storm analysis data to assist clients in pinpointing hail, wind, and flood events across the U.S. These reports are valuable to insurance companies and claim adjusters who need to verify locations of interest affected by severe weather hours, days, weeks, months, and even years after the event has occurred. Our popular HailSWATH report delivers a comprehensive site-specific meteorological analysis of hail-producing thunderstorms rendered on Google! Maps. The reports are derived from an in-depth analysis of weather radar data, supplemented with actual hail reports collected through internal verification processes.

In May 20 10, CompuWeather, a member of the FleetWeather Group of Companies, entered a strategic partnership with AnythingWeather Communications , Inc. to incorporate AnythingWeather's hail analysis techno logy in CompuWeather's new HailTrail product line. HailTrail includes site-specific hail analysis reports (HaiITrail), vicinity hail search reports

(HaiITrajI SEARCH), and combined hail and wind report s (HaiITrajIPLUS) designed specifically tor insurance claims, legal cases, and engineering investigations. CompuWeather is the largest worldwide provider of forensic weather data and a brand name of choice for insurance professionals, attorneys, and engineers when the weather cond it ions are

critical to the management of a case, claim , or investigation. CompuWeather celebrates its 34th year in business and has managed more than 64,000 insurance claims and legal cases to date.

For more information about forensic weather analysis or to place an order immediately, contact CompuWeather Forensic

Sales Division, Insurance, Legal and Engineering Sales, at 800-825-4445; experts@compuweather.com; www.compuweather.corn. For inquiries about the HailWatch suite of services, contact HailWatch at 800-845-0383; info@anythingweather.com; www.hailwatch.com