When delayed deliveries can cause many cascading repercussions—from business interruptions to diminished consumer confidence—information becomes vital. “Someone awaiting a package in Bangkok doesn’t care if it snowed in Louisville, Kentucky. They want their stuff,” says Randy Baker, UPS meteorologist, as cited in a new report about the value of NCEI’s data.
In the express courier industry, which expedites time-sensitive documents, small parcels, and high-value items, historical records are used to reduce weather risks and optimize performance. For instance, data from our Integrated Surface Database (ISD) have contributed to the International Station Meteorological Climate Summary (ISMCS). ISMCS, referred to as the “climate disk,” contains detailed historical summaries of daily, hourly, and monthly reports of air temperature, precipitation, wind, clouds, pressure, and various other elements from 640 primary weather observation sites and more than 5,800 secondary sites worldwide.
For railroads, a major provider of long-haul freight, weather and climate data reduce vulnerabilities to rail infrastructure when changes in temperature and weather conditions occur.
The $60 billion railway industry transports coal, raw metal ores, agricultural commodities, and consumer goods while relying on our products analyzed by a third-party weather service. Our Local Climatological Data (LCD), Integrated Surface Daily Database (ISD), and Global Historical Climatology Network, Daily (GHCN-D) provide a foundation for freight management. The data help several ways: to support historical event analysis to inform risk management, to provide weather-related evidence to support legal claims, and to enhance network optimization.Managing weather risks and improving services with appropriate data strengthen other segments of the U.S. economy. With tens of millions of packages due for delivery each day, a single delay causes ripple effects for many businesses and citizens.
For bulk goods, the U.S. freight rail network transports five million tons of cargo on a daily basis. As a system interconnected with many other sectors, such as energy, retail, and agriculture, a disruption in transport or logistics can introduce gaps in the broader supply chain and the economy. Demand for weather and climate data take on greater importance to support commerce in this and other sectors. Edited for WeatherNation by Meteorologist Mace Michaels