Matthew J. Bunkers, Ph.D., CCM Expert Witness

Publications


Certified Consulting Meteorologist/Weather Expert

Contact this Expert Witness

  • Company: Northern Plains Weather Services, LLC
  • Phone: 605-390-7243
  • Website: npweather.com

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

General Specialties:

Meteorology and Hydrology

Keywords/Search Terms:

forensic meteorology, heavy rain and flooding, high winds, fog, severe storms, hail, tornadoes, winter weather, heavy snow, slip and falls, icing, fire weather, weather-related accidents, agriculture weather, lightning verification, radar, satellite, and applied climate and meteorology

Education:

Ph.D., Atmospheric, Environmental, & Water Resources, SD School of Mines & Technology; M.S., Meteorology, SD School of Mines & Technology; B.S., Interdisciplinary Sciences, SD School of Mines & Technology

Years in Practice:

7

Number of Times Deposed/Testified in Last 4 Yrs:

5

Additional Information

I believe that my clients deserve to have accurate and reliable weather information. My clients include lawyers and industries of construction, insurance, mining, and power generation. I have worked on cases involving: • analyses of tornado/hail/wind (including derecho) damage to businesses, crops, people, farm property (e.g., barns, grain bins, and irrigation systems), and housing units for insurance-related claims/lawsuits, • slip and falls related to snowfall, icing, refreezing, and freezing drizzle, • climate-, severe-, and winter-weather analyses for a mining operation, preventative planting insurance claim, crop spraying, livestock operations, and construction delays due to adverse weather days, • rainfall recurrence interval analyses for flooding of homes and flash-flood related damages to businesses and trains/railroad tracks, • snowfall and rainfall analyses for insurance protection claims for recreational events, • cloud cover, moonlight, rainfall, fog, icing, snow, and wind analyses for automobile and semi-truck accidents, • windstorm, drought, lightning, and satellite analyses for wildfires and dust storms, • fire-weather observations and research papers for a fellow consulting meteorologist, • presentations on flash flooding, storm observing, photography, and safety, • an air-quality and weather-related assessment, • a technical review of a weather book, • a general radar/hail project, and • consulting advice for a colleague. About: Dr. Bunkers founded Northern Plains Weather Services, LLC, in 2017. He grew up on a dairy farm in eastern South Dakota, and has a passion for meteorology, solving problems, and helping others. As a result, Dr. Bunkers worked to obtain his Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM) designation from the American Meteorological Society (AMS), acquiring this on 30 January 2017 (#731). As of 25 February 2024, he was one of 215 active CCMs. According to the AMS, “The CCM program is a service for the general public by the AMS. The Society has established high standards of technical competence, character, and experience for certified consultants who provide meteorological advice to the public.” Dr. Bunkers has been a member of the AMS since 1991, the National Weather Association since 1994, and the Association of Certified Meteorologists since 2018. He has been retained and/or used as a consultant for 100+ cases since 2017.