WeatherBELL Forensic Meteorology &
Expert Witness Services

Dr. Tim Coleman is the Director of Forensic Meteorology at Weatherbell. He holds an MS and a PhD in Atmospheric Science from The University of Alabama in Huntsville, and a BS in Physics from Samford University. He started his career in meteorology at age 16 with the National Weather Service, where he worked through college and graduate school. After a few years in television, he went into weather research at UAH in 2005, studying severe windstorms, radar meteorology, and lightning. Dr. Coleman has authored twenty-two peer-reviewed articles in academic journals, and has trained National Weather Service meteorologists in the use of his research during severe weather. Tim has been interviewed on the The Weather Channel twice and on the CBS Evening News, and is still an adjunct researcher at UAH. Dr. Coleman has performed meteorological consulting services in over 500 cases since 2009. Many of these have involved expert testimony. He works frequently with plaintiffs and defense attorneys; he only gives his clients the truth. He has worked on cases involving a variety of weather events, including hurricanes, rainfall/flooding, wind damage, hail damage, building collapse, maritime, aircraft, and automobile accidents, fog, and tornadoes.

Tom Downs serves as Chief Operating Officer for WeatherBell Analytics, but still performs a large volume of forensic meteorology work. He also provides forecasting expertise and support to a wide variety of commercial-level clients. Tom earned a B.S. degree in Atmospheric Sciences from Cornell University. He has 21 years' professional experience in the field of meteorology, and has been with Weatherbell since 2014. Mr. Downs serves the legal and insurance communities as a Forensic Meteorologist, specializing in slip and fall cases. He served as Director of Forensic Meteorology for more than 10 years while at Expert Weather Investigations and Weather 2000, Inc. He has provided hundreds of expert reports for a broad spectrum of legal and insurance cases in various state and federal jurisdictions and has been cited in multiple appellate court decisions. Mr. Downs has been deposed and has appeared in court to testify as an expert in analyzing official weather records. He has also been interviewed by various media as a weather expert, and has assisted in the production of various documentaries.

Roger Edwards joined Weatherbell after his retirement from the National Weather Service. His distinguished career included experience at both the National Hurricane Center and the Storm Prediction Center, where he received numerous Department of Commerce Awards for outstanding service during severe weather outbreaks. He received BS degree in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, where he also did graduate coursework. He has authored 34 articles in peer-reviewed journals, in addition to dozens of conference and invited presentations, and is currently the editor of the Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology. He also served on the AMS Severe Local Storms Conference Committee three separate times. He is a member of the American Meteorological Society and the Texas Severe Storms Association. Roger will be working as a forensic meteorologist primarily on severe local storms, including thunderstorm-induced straight-line winds and hail.

Dr. Kevin Knupp works for Weatherbell as a forensic meteorologist. He received his MS and PhD in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University, and an undergraduate degree in Meteorology from lowa State University. He recently retired after a distinguished 39-year career as a researcher and professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where he was the director of the well-known Severe Weather Institute/Radar and Lightning Laboratories (SWIRLL). He remains at UAH as an adjunct researcher. Kevin's focus has been on weather instrumentation and its use in severe weather; he has overseen the development of numerous weather instrumentation platforms, including the Mobile Integrated Profiling System (MIPS), ARMOR (one of the first operational dual-polarization radars in America), and the Mobile Alabama X-band radar (MAX). Kevin has authored or co-authored dozens of peer-reviewed scientific articles, and he was named a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 2011. In addition to his extensive academic background, Kevin has experience as an expert witness working on various cases involving litigation, primarily examining wind, hail, and tornado events.

Joe D'Aleo has been co-chief Meteorologist of WeatherBell since the company started in 2011, and he continues to research how sea surface temperatures, global oscillations, soil moisture and solar cycles influence seasonal weather. Mr. D'Aleo has over 50 years' experience in professional meteorology, over a broad spectrum of high-profile jobs. He was a co-founder, and the first Director of Meteorology, at The Weather Channel; he was Chief Meteorologist at Weather Services International Corporation (WSI); and he was a partner and Chief Meteorologist at a hedge fund trading energy and agriculture derivatives before joining WeatherBell at its founding. Dr. D'Aleo also chaired the Meteorology program at Lyndon State College for several years. Joe has published numerous peer-reviewed papers and books and made numerous presentations to conferences for government, professional societies, and industries in the U.S., Brazil, Canada and China. Mr. D'Aleo earned his Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM), and was elected as a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Mr. D'Aleo was elected a Councilor for the AMS, the first private sector meteorologist to be elected by his peers for that role.