How AI Can Make Weather Tracking Better

Written by Adam Morris

Updated August 3, 2023
AI weather tracking system

Do you want to track the weather with ease? AI is assisting meteorologists in exploring ways to make understanding and predicting extreme weather easier. Weather forecasting has progressed a lot since ancient times when observing the sky was enough.

Current technology such as satellites, radars, and mobile apps now provides us with comprehensive local weather information. AI is again assisting meteorologists in exploring ways to understand and predict severe weather more easily.

What Does A Weather Radar Do?

Weather radar is an invaluable tool in helping meteorologists to accurately predict the weather. It is a device that utilizes pulses of electromagnetic energy that are sent into the atmosphere in order to locate precipitation elements and identify their motion as well as their intensity. This information allows meteorologists to better forecast weather conditions and determine hazardous areas so they can prepare accordingly.

Weather radar on screen

When a pulse of electromagnetic energy is sent by the radar, it will strike an object such as a raindrop or snowflake and then reflect back to the instrument with data that informs scientists about the type of precipitation, motion, and intensity level.

In identifying these variables, accurate predictions can be made with regard to severe storm systems where flash flooding may occur or when hail storms are imminent in certain locations.

Through this technology, many lives can be safeguarded on account of alerting residents of potentially hazardous weather conditions.

Artificial Intelligence In Weather And Climate Prediction

AI-powered weather prediction is rapidly advancing the ways in which humans are able to accurately predict and effectively respond to weather events.

Utilizing AI-driven models together with traditional physics-methods, specialists can accurately forecast severe weather incidences like thunderstorms, floods, and tornadoes. They can additionally identify long-term climate patterns that could have implications for our future.

With machine learning-powered models, analytics on historical data gives experts the ability to make more informed decisions based on their findings.

These predictive models are taking into account variables such as barometric pressure, temperature, and storm formations for improved accuracy so that people can have greater warning of extreme weather conditions. AI weather models also have low false positive possibility due to their incredible capacity for learning; they identify patterns in data points faster and more efficiently than humans ever could.

In doing so, as well as removing human error from the equation entirely, AI can help improve resource allocation and emergency preparedness while creating a more efficient use of manpower that would otherwise go towards tedious manual prediction models.

How Does AI Improve Weather Forecasting?

AI in weather prediction is proving to be a powerful tool when paired with human intelligence. Often traditional physics-based weather and climate models are incredibly time-consuming and require immense computing power.

Weather forecast on purple screen

Artificial intelligence and machine learning models use prior data to create more precise predictions without the need for simulations of physical processes.

Increasingly, this type of AI modelling is being used to improve business outcomes, operations and responses to weather events. By training the algorithms on past data, researchers can produce superior forecasts that give early warnings for potential dangers or provide guidance on optimal business decisions.

Furthermore, AI technology can detect weather patterns that come from natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, or extreme temperatures and assist human experts in alerting affected populations before impact.

In summary, AI in weather prediction allows for improved forecasts which help guard against dangerous situations and allows businesses to respond optimally ahead of time.

Collecting Data

Weather data collection is an ever-important endeavor in the world of meteorology. With a variety of ground, air, and ocean sensors being used to provide real-time information via IoT around the globe, the sheer amount of collected weather data can be quite daunting. Traditional computer programs are simply unable to make sense of such a massive pool of data.

To recognize patterns in this space, artificial intelligence technologies like machine learning algorithms, neural networks, and deep learning have become essential.

By feeding vast amounts of data into these systems they can learn to recognize subtle patterns that the human eye cannot process so quickly or easily.

Meteorologists are now employing Artificial Intelligence models to incorporate multiple variables into numerical computer models for the purpose of predicting weather events, including lightning and tornadoes, which expands their forecasting capabilities.

Scientist collecting weather data in the middle of field

Only in 1986, did NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) first begin to use Artificial Intelligence for meteorological research.

However, only recently due to advances in deep learning and access to supercomputers that can run these operations have researchers seen an exponential rise in applications being utilized. Through this combination of machine learning and forecasting technologies, information will continue to become more accurate, abundant, and insightful – providing us ample opportunity for data-driven decision-making within any field reliant upon climatic conditions.

Data Interpretation

The nature of data insights has been dramatically changing in recent years, as new artificial intelligence techniques allow scientists to accurately predict and forecast weather conditions based on increased access to massive data sets. Rather than relying on physical laws as a basis for understanding the atmosphere and weather, neural networks are trained through exposure to large amounts of data from the past.

Weather prediction on phone

As a result, they can produce their own sophisticated models without needing to rely on costly computations that rely solely on current irregularity. This allows for more accurate predictions, particularly those involving “nowcasting” which involves predicting the future in a rapid manner not possible with traditional methods.

History-based Predictions

A new global weather model has been developed in order to make more accurate weather forecasts. This model uses an artificial intelligence platform and weather data from the last 40 years to simulate current climate trends worldwide through iterative forecasting.

The AI model is accurate enough to detect high-impact events before they occur, thus potentially saving lives. Weather forecasts used today rely on numerical weather prediction models which take into account observations from sources such as weather balloons, satellites, and weather stations in order to calculate conditions based on equations that represent air movement and pressure levels.

Whilst this is effective for larger-scale readings, it isn’t always adept in predicting smaller scale events due to their reduced computing power. With a global weather model, however, researchers are able to use data-driven AI to much more accurately predict these kinds of smaller scale events – quickly simulating them with almost as reliable results as traditional forecasts.

How Does AI Help Fight Climate Change?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can monitor and detect environmental changes, enabling faster reactions. Furthermore, AI can make decisions related to energy production and water management more efficiently, helping to decrease carbon footprint.

Solar energy panels in field

Additionally, AI can support research into renewable energies and other technologies that could lessen our reliance on fossil fuels and limit emissions of hazardous gases. Satellite data can be used to monitor changes in agricultural output and land cover due to rising temperatures and climate changes.

Conclusion

The introduction of AI and machine learning has drastically improved the accuracy of weather forecasts. Weather predictions are now more accurate than ever thanks to the data gathered from various sources such as satellite imaging, earth systems modelling and collaboration between scientists and computer algorithms. The use of predictive technologies combined with powerful algorithms has enabled more precise prediction of extreme weather conditions like heavy rain, inches of rain, and tracks of hurricanes.

We’ve come a long way from using limited tools to now having sophisticated technology and access to vast amounts of data. This means more precise predictions about the future weather conditions on both local and global scales. Machine learning has the potential to enhance weather forecasting accuracy, although further development is still needed.

FAQs

How can machine learning improve climate forecasts?

Machine learning models can enhance climate forecasting. They can analyze large amounts of weather data and find patterns or trends that may hint at future climate conditions. These models use previous conditions and training data to determine the factors impacting the current weather, allowing for earlier warnings of hazardous weather events. This can lead to faster responses and decreased damage.

Which algorithm is used for weather forecasting?

Weather forecasting is complex and requires advanced modeling tools to be accurate. The precision and stability of a forecast are greatly impacted by the algorithm selected, with GFS (Global Forecasting System) provided by NCEP (The National Centers for Environmental Prediction) being a popular choice. GFS uses an extensive data set across many variables to generate highly reliable and accurate forecasts.

What are the constraints of AI in weather forecasting?

One of the major constraints of AI in weather forecasting is that it can only work as efficiently with the data and input we currently have. AI models are typically limited by current datasets, which may not predict behaviors correctly or simulate events such as extreme weather events. Another constraint is that AI cannot predict climate change, as accurate predictions would require vast amounts of long-term data which humans currently lack. Lastly, since AI algorithms learn by example and association, they can sometimes provide inaccurate results due to bias in the data used during training.

Adam is a crypto expert & AI enthusiast who has been researching and writing on the topics since 2017.

He’s spoken on numerous podcasts and has been featured in many prominent media publications such as Forbes, CNN & CNBC.