Journal · 5

Field notes
from the grid.

What the sensors saw, what the policies paid, and what we changed afterwards.

An open river-gauge housing on a wooden jetty at dawn, with a laptop on a hard case beside it and mist over the water.

Latest

What a gauge tells you before it goes silent

We spent a dawn on a wooden jetty with a river gauge that stopped reporting during a flood, and learned what its last readings had been saying for hours.

6 min

7 min

Eleven hours on a warehouse roof in March

Mounting one weather station on one coastal roof took two technicians a full day, and decided where a quarter of our Gulf Coast wind readings come from.

Two technicians kneeling on a rooftop to mount a small weather station on a tripod, one in an orange vest, under a grey sky.

7 min

Reading a payment line by line: cell FL-0417

One cell, one storm, one payment: every line of the settlement note we sent after Storm Ines, and why each line is there.

A printed coastal map covered in pencil dots on a concrete desk, with a steel ruler, pencils and an orange highlighter.

8 min

Reading basis risk with a ruler

Basis risk is the distance between what an index pays and what you lose. Here is how to measure it on your own site, with a map and a ruler.

Macro of a steel instrument scale with fine tick marks and a thin needle, a small orange band at one end.

6 min

Notes from a reinsurance hallway

Three days of coffee-counter conversations at a reinsurance conference, and the questions that capacity providers asked about indices, silent gauges and tiers.

A conference hallway with small groups in dark coats talking beside a coffee counter, an orange tote bag on a chair.

One email per storm season

Field notesfrom the grid.