Smarter Hurricane Forecasts Coming With Google’s AI

It seems like we hear about new uses for artificial intelligence all the time, but some uses are better than others. Weather forecasting already relies on computer models to work out the fine details in the atmosphere, so it seems natural to use AI to help with weather forecasting.

Google just released their new weather model meant to help with forecasting hurricanes. This new AI tool is called Weather Lab and it's free to the public. This new AI model can provide up to 15 days advance forecast and up to 50 possible outcomes for the possible storm. The current models are only 3-5 days of lead time.

Another way the new model is an improvement on the old ones is that it can resolve both the path and intensity of a hurricane, whereas right now, two different processes are required to forecast those parts of the hurricane forecast. The AI system uses information from past hurricanes to predict what future storms may do.

Will human forecasters still be making the forecast decisions?

The National Hurricane Center expert forecasters will be able to see the predictions from the AI model in real time to compare and fine-tune tropical storm forecasts starting now. The AI model from Google will be compared to the currently used forecast models to help improve the forecasting and Fox Weather Hurricane Specialist Brian Norcross served as an advisor to the team developing the AI model at Google.

Fox Weather also shared a sample of how Google's Weather Lab correctly forecast the path of Hurricane Helene. The blue lines shows the Google Weather Lab prediction for direction and intensity. The black lines shows the actual path the hurricane took and how strong it was.

With reports of cuts at the National Hurricane Center, will this new artificial intelligence tool help compensate for less human expertise? With hurricane season officially underway, we'll find out soon enough.