Metar Weather Offers Weather Risk Insurance to Small Business

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Could the impending snor'eastercane predicted to hit the East Coast be a sign of a heavy winter storm season?

While predicting weather patterns is never certain -- whether it be heavy rainfall, snowstorms or a natural disaster such as Hurricane Sandy -- one company is looking to help weather-reliant businesses protect their bottom lines.

Metar Weather offers weather risk protection insurance to businesses by helping clients reduce risks to earnings, expenses or revenues resulting from a broad array of "measurable meteorological phenomena," including precipitation, temperature, humidity and wind, it says.

>>>Site Lets Firms Hedge Fuel Costs

Metar Weather has an exclusive agreement with WeatherWorks, a leader in customized meteorological services, to give Metar access to hyperlocal weather data.

Businesses such as snow removal professionals and ski resort operators would benefit from buying Metar's products to protect from winter weather volatility in areas such as the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, where snow, rain and ice has been more volatile and unpredictable over the past few years.

Being unable to predict whether the season will bring too much or too little snow is a big challenge for the $2 billion snow and ice removal industry. In cases in which snow and ice removal companies have seasonal contracts, they can lose money in seasons with heavy snowfall, Metar Weather says in a release announcing additional products.

Conversely, if they are working on per-occurrence contracts, they do not make money if it doesn't snow, causing many to try to find other sources of income or just close their business down, it says.

The products can also protect commercial buyers of snow removal services, such as retail businesses, shopping malls, corporate office buildings and universities that buy contracts for snow removal ahead of time.

The company does not protect against natural disasters.

Metar Weather launched in July 2011. CEO and founder Richard Nemet was inspired by a friend who owned a retail business selling winter jackets. As Nemet tells the story, the friend was lamenting an unseasonably warm fall that was cutting into his revenue.

1 2 Next › Last »