2014 AMS Annual Meeting

Program

Committee on Financial Weather/Climate Risk Management is offering a short course titled Weather to Risk It or Not: The Fundamentals of Weather and Risk Management at the Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA on Sunday, February 2, 2014.  Go to the AMS Annual Meeting registration site to register for the course.

From harvesting crops to organizing complex supply chains to managing the energy grid to trading commodity contracts, significant economic decisions are made across the globe based on meteorological predictions and the expected impact of weather events.  The US alone has an economic sensitivity on the whole of 3.4% of their GDP ($14.4 trillion at 2008 dollar levels) and $458.2 billion of this is linked to economic loss due to extreme weather.  And that doesn't even address the profit opportunities possible with advance knowledge of extreme weather events, such as weather-dependent commodities trading.  On volatile days, $15 Billion worth of natural gas contracts are traded in the NYMEX Henry Hub on a single day.  These are large scale impacts of weather to the economy but there are more tactical examples as well.  For example, Jamba Juice knows they need to schedule more employees (based on the historic increase in store traffic) when the temperature exceeds 95 degrees. 

Companies sensitive to day-to-day weather patterns are exploring new ways to drive performance through improved weather risk management.  The opportunities to hedge weather-related costs or replace weather-related revenues are simply too significant to ignore.  This course is designed to open a dialogue on weather sensitive businesses and to demonstrate the readily accessible risk tools.  We will offer information about hedging products, financial strategies, and specific case studies.   

A laptop or electronic device such as a tablet is suggested for the course and wireless internet access will be available. Participants will use their electronic devices to access presentations, take notes, and accomplish individual and group exercises.

       For more information please contact: Kevin Stenson (MeteoGroup USA; email; [email protected]; phone 224-595-6714) and/or Heidi Centola (CME Group; [email protected]; phone 312-930-1308) and/or Stephen Bennett (EarthRisk Technologies; e-mail [email protected]; phone 312-590-6360).