In my last post, I talked a lot about things that most cause personal inconvenience, though they can also cause economic damages in the form of lost wages and insurance claims. And, as we're all well aware, the government does not care about our personal comfort and convenience unless we're wealthy enough to have donated directly to their own personal comfort, convenience, and power. So in order to get the government and any serious investors interested in working on or funding a project, you have to provide them with Use Cases that show a tangible benefit. This is our initial list of Use Cases:

Agriculture - Some of the more well-known uses for accurate forecasting have to do with agriculture. When should farmers get their crops in, when will the last freeze happen, when are there floods coming that will wipe out crops or wind storms that will cause damage, will the hail destroy all of the cherries and peaches - all questions that farmers have relied on accurate answers to for centuries. From old wives' tales and myths, to Farmers' Almanacs and computer generated forecasts, farmers have had two options for staying solvent - be lucky, or be solvent enough to cover all of your bets in case of crop failure. This is a terrible business model for any sector, but especially the one that provides us with food, lumber, and clothing.

Logistics - Logistics is a passion of mine, weather is a passion of mine, and when the two of them combine, terrible things tend to happen. One of my worst weather related corporate disasters of all time was logistics related - when the semi carrying $96k worth of specially chosen, sequence matched walnut panels tipped over in high winds on a freeway onramp in Wyoming, destroying the panels within and causing a 20 day re-manufacturing delay for my company. It wasn't the straw that broke our back, but it did happen during the summer of back breaking, and was definitely a contributing factor. What if we'd been able to tell that there was going to be a wind storm in Wyoming and had routed our shipment through Nevada instead? Well - at least $96k worth of beautiful craftsmanship would still be around. That's one small shipment. What if we can keep more container behemoths out of storms? How much could we save from going to waste then?

Power Generation - While largescale, long-term electricity storage is largely a thing of daydreams, as more and more people shift to off-grid living, they will come to rely on accurate forecasting to know when green electricity generation will be enough for their needs and when they'll need to provide backup power. And, as more people purchase or develop powerbanks, more efficient use and intelligent routing can help prevent large-scale power outages caused by supply shortages. 

Public Safety - This one is pretty obvious. We want to prevent as much loss of life possible from landslides, cyclones, blizzards, and floods.

Real-Estate Planning - While not a common factor in a lot of areas currently, as Climate Change continues unabated, more and more areas of the world will become unstable for living conditions. Whether due to frequent flooding, damaging winds, or landslides, property values in will be more in flux than ever in the coming years. While extreme long-term forecasting is a pipedream for all but the most basic of factors, unparalleled access to historical weather data via datamining publicly available databases and taking user weather observations into account will allow environmental assessors and land planners the ability to properly assess the dangers of future weather-related disasters.

So there you have it - the first five use cases (with tangible benefits) where I will be focusing my efforts. Stay warm and dry.