Weather has a huge impact on the freight market. FreightWaves adds full-time meteorologist to cover and analyze impacts

FreightWaves, the leading provider of freight market news, commentary, and analytics announces the appointment of Nick Austin to Director of Weather Analytics and Senior Meteorologist.

Weather is an important contributor to the volatility in the freight market and impacts all aspects of transportation. Climate conditions can have immediate and long-term impacts to how the freight market operates.

On the demand side, weather impacts freight demand in many parts of the freight economy, including:

Retail sales (seasonal clothing, air-conditioning, outdoor furniture, pool toys, sporting equipment)

Food and beverages (bottled water, beer, soda, ice cream, soup)

Construction and building materials

Ag (crop-yields are directly impacted by weather. Too little rain and crops won’t grow. Too much rain and fields get ruined)

Energy (humans prefer goldilocks conditions: not too hot, not too cold. As we aspire to maintain our cool in the summer and heat in the winter, we consume energy to maintain our indoor climates. The more extreme the weather, the more extreme our energy consumption is)

On the supply-side, weather impacts the freight market by changing how freight is routed and the conditions that carriers operate in, including:

Routing decisions are modified based on temperature and humidity (rail vs. truck) or (dry-van vs. reefer)

Major weather events, such as hurricanes, flooding, fires, and winter blizzards can impact capacity availability and routes. Disaster relief projects like the one in the Carolinas can also change the capacity map.

Nick Austin has spent the last 17-years as a broadcast meteorologist, serving as an on-camera meteorologist for NBC-affiliate WRCB. His background in data-science and climate modeling has propelled him to be one of the most distinguished weathermen in the region. He holds two degrees that will serve him well as the in-house weather analyst for FreightWaves: a Bachelor’s degree in Management from Georgia Tech and a Bachelors degree in Meteorology from Florida State University.

He is excited to help the FreightWaves community interpret weather and climate events across the market and to develop tools that will provide predictive insights for market participants.

Over the past year, FreightWaves has become the leading provider of news and analytics for the freight community, publishing hundreds of articles per month about the freight markets. Alexa.com, a website tracking firm owned by Amazon, ranks FreightWaves as the number one news site involved in freight and logistics news globally. According to Meltwater, FreightWaves enjoys a monthly audience of over 100 million.