National Weather Service Cuts Threaten Climate Safety
Cuts in the staff of NOAA, the parent organization of the National Weather Service, have increased anxiety about whether the organization can protect against dangerous climate incidents at the level it has in the past. In an interview with Axios, Peter Neilley, director of weather forecasting sciences and technologies at The Weather Company, said “It is vital for the protection of life and property… that the existing weather enterprise be sustained and enhanced moving forward,”
New Venture-Backed Weather Companies
Axios points out that private weather services might provide supplemental weather forecasting services. This is a distinct possibility. Ten major venture capital firms focus on weather technology. Tracxn lists 111 weather tech companies, some in the late funding stages. These include Spire, BreezoMeter, WeatherXM, Jupiter, and Meteoblue.
Nvidia And Google AI
Some of the most complex forecast work could come from two of the largest tech companies in the world. Several weather tech companies have already started to use the NVIDIA Earth-2 product. Nvidia it offers “High-Resolution, Energy-Efficient, More Accurate Weather Predictions and Disaster Preparedness.”
Google also has a product. Its Graphcast AI product is superior to current forecasting models, it says. “Our state-of-the-art model delivers 10-day weather predictions at unprecedented accuracy in under one minute.”
The panic over National Weather Service cuts may be an overreaction if new AI services work.
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