RMS boosts cyclone capabilities with partnership

Catastrophe modelling firm, RMS, has signed a three year contract with start-up HWind Scientific for real-time tropical cyclone analysis services in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico basins.

HWind is a start-up founded by former NOAA hurricane scientist, Mark Powell. Powell invented a system for real-time hurricane wind analysis that results in a series of high-definition, observation-based, objective products that allow clients to overlay storm impact maps on their business infrastructure.

RMS will use HWind’s standardised data products to enhance and refine the windfield models in its North Atlantic hurricane products and to validate footprints in RMS’s cat response services.

HWind helped validate RMS’s cat response accumulation zones for Hurricane Odile, the Cat 3 storm that hit the Baja California peninsula last month, providing analysis of data sets such as observations from weather stations in Mexico’s Servicio Meteorológico Nacional network.

“HWind brings us access to unique data sources such as remote sensing and hurricane hunter reconnaissance in an easy to consume format,” said Michael Young, senior director of model product management at RMS. “We are proud to work with Mark Powell, who has been a leader in his field for over 30 years.”

“We are excited to be providing our real-time services to RMS. Signing a global leader like RMS affirms our position as an innovator in real-time hurricane monitoring,” said Powell. “This is timely since we still have two months left in the hurricane season with potential for an upswing in activity.”