Rain, rain, go away: IBM Weather Alerts for Insurance

Matt Irwin
Fri, 15 Apr 2016 03:00:00 -0400

IBM just launched Weather Alerts for Insurance, a platform that combines data from The Weather Company, Mapbox maps and geocoding, and real-time alerts to protect insurance policyholders.

Imagine you’re a car owner in Texas, which sees more annual hail events than any other state. A single hailstorm in northern Texas on March 23 caused $300 million in damage to 50,000 vehicles.

You purchase car insurance, and your agent uploads your address, phone number, and policy details to Weather Alerts for Insurance. Months later, The Weather Company’s global sensor network detects a storm forming over the plains states with a high likelihood of hail that’s forecasted to pass near your home. With the storm still hours away, Weather Alerts for Insurance sends you a personalized, automated text message suggesting you pull your car into your garage.

Your car is spared, you save time and your deductible, and your insurer has one less claim to process and pay.

Stay tuned for more collaboration between IBM, The Weather Company, and Mapbox. Want to learn more about using weather data on our platform? Check out these blog posts, especially 60 years of hail data analyzed with Turf, and show us what you’re building @Mapbox.