Storm reports are one of the most utilized tools in forensic storm damage assessments for insurance claims and litigation following a weather event. In fact, some precedent has been set for using social media weather reports as official storm reports (Blair and Leighton 2012), but several instances of fake or otherwise unrepresentative reports have also plagued this system. Figure 2: Correspondence from the National Weather Service regarding a fake hail report found on social media. Meanwhile, automated weather reports utilized widely in the insurance industry are generally not storm reports. Regarding storm reports that are published by the National Weather Service, there is a library of literature regarding issues with even these seemingly “official” reports (or lack thereof), especially regarding hail reports and wind reports.

Source: Washington Post June 07, 2023 18:22 UTC