How to Use NOAA Data to Build a Weather-Adjusted Seasonal Plan in Five Steps

G2 Weather Intelligence Brainstorm Series — Post 2 of 7

"The further back you can look, the further forward you are likely to see." — Sir Winston Churchill

Lately, I find myself with more time on my hands than I've had in over thirty years — and I absolutely love it. Doing my own thing while being accountable to no one (outside of my own house, of course) is the best job I've ever had — and I've had some good ones.

And it’s given me the time to read more history than I have in decades. Lately, I’ve been absorbed by Timothy Egan’s account of the Dust Bowl and Andrew Ross Sorkin’s reconstruction of the 1929 crash.

They both cover the same general era — two different catastrophes, one environmental and one financial — and yet if you blur your eyes, the patterns are remarkably similar. Warning signs that were visible and ignored. Systems that worked brilliantly until they didn’t. Decision-makers who planned for the continuation of what they already knew rather than the probability of what was actually coming.

The farmers of the High Plains kept pl…