Artificial intelligence improves the accuracy of short-term weather forecasts and particularly the prediction of storms and heavy rain, according to research by the UK Meteorological Office and DeepMind, the London-based AI company.
Their project focused on “nowcasting” — pinpointing the timing, location and intensity of precipitation at high resolution up to two hours ahead — which is not handled well by the supercomputer models used to forecast weather on a larger scale over the next day or week.
This is critical for applications ranging from warning emergency services about an imminent flood risk to letting organisers of outdoor events know when a downpour is coming.