Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide announces theavailability of Real-Time Climate Risk Analytics, a new service forcorporations and emergency management agencies to help them bettermanage and assess their risk from natural catastrophes.

AIR's new climate risk service addresses the uncertainty in datareported in real time by incorporating a wide range of catastropheloss scenarios, including low-probability but high-impact outcomes,for improved planning and decision making. Companies and emergencymanagement agencies can receive a real-time view of risk that isspecific to the vulnerabilities of assets, such as an industrialfacility, a set of retail locations, or an entire region.

“AIR developed Real-Time Climate Risk Analytics in directresponse to a need expressed by our clients for a customizablesolution that quantifies the risk of storm activity prior tolandfall and assesses what the resulting physical and financialimpacts could be to their properties,” says Dr. Peter Dailey, vicepresident and director of atmospheric science at AIR Worldwide. “Bycombining Real-Time Climate Risk Analytics with AIR's CatastropheRisk Engineering (CRE) services, AIR provides an end-to-endsolution, from site-specific analysis for modeling thevulnerabilities of assets to real-time climate risk services thathelp risk managers and agencies better prepare for naturalcatastrophes. Decisions can now be made based on the physical andfinancial risk to the assets under consideration.”

The core technology behind Real-Time Climate Risk Analytics isClimateCast, a web-based application that tracks and assessesindustrywide risk from active tropical cyclones in the Atlanticbasin, including the potential for producing losses to onshore andoffshore assets in the United States and the Gulf of Mexico.ClimateCast is updated four times daily and assimilates data fromthe National Hurricane Center (NHC) and other meteorologicalorganizations around the world. The application tracks stormactivity beginning June 1 and updates continually throughout thehurricane season. The solution can be customized using AIR's CREservices to translate the real-time view of hazard into a real-timeview of risk, meeting the specific needs of individual riskmanagers.

“The AIR team also conducts its own research across the fullclimate spectrum—from local climate factors influencing individualevents in real time to global factors influencing the risk overseveral years,” says Dailey. “AIR's catastrophe loss models andsite-specific engineering are able to translate climate-inducedchanges into easy-to-understand loss metrics.”

Corporate risk managers can apply Real-Time Climate RiskAnalytics to strategic planning, operational planning, andreal-time decision making. The service can improve strategicplanning by playing out a range of simulated storm scenarios,including those more intense than have been observed historically.Operational planning can incorporate the most effective actionsunder various 'what if' scenarios and stress tests based on areplay of historical events. Real-Time Climate Risk Analyticsprovides forecasted track, intensity, damage, and loss analysesbased on the latest official reports and forecasts for the activestorm as it evolves.

“We've combined these capabilities into a new analytical tool tohelp companies better understand the climate's influence on currentand future risks,” says Dailey. “We're confident the applicationswill help risk managers do their jobs more effectively and makemore informed and confident risk management decisions.”