Google has developed a new artificial intelligence model that can predict weather forecasts faster than meteorologists.
Scalable Ensemble Envelope Diffusion Sampley, or SEEDS for short, uses the power of AI to generate numerous weather forecasts in a short amount of time. This in turn allows researchers to analyze a wider range of possible weather outcomes, and can even predict natural disasters days or weeks before they happen.
“Accurate weather forecasts can have a direct impact on people’s lives, from helping make routine decisions,” Google wrote in a blog post. “The importance of accurate and timely weather forecasts will only increase as the climate changes. Recognizing this, we at Google have been investing in weather and climate research to help ensure that the forecasting technology of tomorrow can meet the demand for reliable weather information.”
Current methods for weather prediction are often expensive and can miss critical details about impending weather catastrophes. SEEDS data is capable of capturing even rare events that current models could miss.
“This technology opens up novel opportunities for weather and climate science, and it represents one of the first applications to weather and climate forecasting of probabilistic diffusion models,” Google explained.
Natural disasters kill tens of thousands of people each year. Current technology is able to predict weather patterns only a few days in advance, at the most, which gives civilians a short window to make a safe and efficient exit strategy. In 2023 alone, 3.1 million Americans were displaced from natural disasters and were unable to prepare for the disaster.
SEEDS predictions can accurately forecast weather more than a week ahead of time, given people in potential disaster areas more time to evacuate, and ultimately saving millions of lives around the world.
