Richard J Westergard

Richard J. ( Dick) Westergard founded Shade Tree Meteorology, LLC, located in Niskayuna, NY after retiring from government service in 2004.

In 2006, Dick earned the American Meteorological Society's (AMS) highest level of certification - "Certified Consulting Meteorologist" (CCM) - and now practices primarily forensic meteorology, with a specialization in re-constructing severe weather events.

Dick started his career in weather in 1966 as an Air Force weather observer, then became a National Weather Service (NWS) Meteorological Technician from 1973 to 1988. From 1988 to 1994, Dick was Meteorologist in Charge of the Duluth NWS office, and from 1994 to 2004 he was Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the Albany NWS office.

Dick used the GI Bill to take college courses at a variety of colleges and universities, culminating in a degree from Marshall University in 1988. He has since attended graduate courses at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, SUNY Brockport and the National Weather Service Training Center, and done research on communicating weather information with the SUNY Albany Communication Department.

Dick is a past president of the National Council of Industrial Meteorologists, the premier association of private sector CCMs in the country, and was 2014 Chair of the AMS Board of Certified Consulting Meteorologists, which is the governing and examining body for the CCM program.

- Quality Forensic Weather Research with special focus on severe weather event reconstruction.
- In depth reconstruction of all weather factors in slip and fall cases.
- Detailed forecasts and radar weather over-watch for outdoor events from weather sensitive construction projects to camping trips to weddings to graduation ceremonies, with updates at custom intervals to meet your schedule.

Thirty eight years of operational weather experience in the U.S. Air Force and National Weather Service followed by a decade of private weather consulting experience.