What is Forecasting of Weather Essay Example

As two different people thousands of miles away get onto the internet to check the weather.  One person is a third world farmer in Africa checking the weather with the new GRAF system while the other person is a JetBlue executive logging onto a Climacell weather report to figure out when a snowstorm ends so he can get the planes off the ground.  These two people thousands of miles away are both benefiting from the innovations in weather forecasting.  

Since the first regional weather forecast was made public by Jacob Bjerknes and Vilhelm in the 1930s many advancements have been made to the weather forecasting industry.  These advancements have helped poor farmers in Africa and have also helped fortune 500 countries such as JetBlue.  Many of these advancements have been courtesy of mobile phones and in flight data from planes but others have been revolutionary ideas such as ClimaCells idea of using cellular data towers to understand local weather conditions.  Therefore many of these advancements are low cost as they use existing infrastructure.  Finally, recent weather advancements have allowed for more people to get accurate weather information.  

History of Weather Forecasting

The basic ideas of weather forecasting are important to understand how the new weather forecasting technologies work.  Basically, all weather forecasts are based on meteorologists attempting to predict the future state of the atmosphere so they can understand the future weather conditions.  Weather forecasts are vital around the world as they can tell a farmer when to plant his crops and a company like JetBlue when to let their planes take off. 

The conventional weather system of the United States National Weather Service is 400 field offices in all the fifty state and around the world.  With this system the NWS can predict weather for the United States.  The problem is with this system is it takes almost 75 million dollars to run and many third world countries such as The Democratic Republic of the Congo and many other countries.  Finally, all weather systems are based on meteorologists predicting the future condition of the atmosphere but many of these systems are expensive to build and maintain making them impossible for third world countries to attain. 

New Weather System Technologies

An important weather forecasting advancement is the GRAF system which is helping third world countries by giving accurate weather forecasts.  The system collects data through cell phones, inflight plane data, and millions of sensors around the world.  According to IBM this system will have almost 200% improvement in forecasting the weather around the world.  Unlike in the United States and Western Europe many countries only get weather reports that cover 12 km to 15km.  So basically, the weather forecast is for 10 miles of land and the weather could vary in any one of those ten miles.  That puts third world farmers at a disadvantage because the weather forecasts aren’t accurate for their specific land.  With the new GRAF system, the farmers get the accurate weather for 3 km of land which will give the farmers the accurate weather for their land not the city 10 miles down the road.  Also, the GRAF system has the benefit of being cost efficient as it requires no physical infrastructure such as weather stations because instead of that the system uses mobile phones and the data from planes. Finally, the GRAF system will help third world farmers around the world as it will give farmers accurate weather forecasts for their specific land.

Another advancement in weather was made by the Boston startup ClimaCell which provides accurate weather data for airports and airlines.  Harnessing the data from cellular towers near airports Clima Cell can accurately predict the weather conditions within a quarter mile of an airport.  An example of the Clima Cell’s technology was when during a snowstorm in Boston, Clima Cell was able to predict the storms more accurately then traditional weather systems.   Conventional weather systems predicted the storm to end at 11am but Clima Cells system predicted the storm to end at 8 am.  Using Clima Cells system JetBlue got their planes of the ground three hours earlier than they would have with traditional weather systems and they also saved thousands of dollars.  Finally, Clima Cells new weather technology is empowering JetBlue to cancel less flights and also save thousands of dollars in deicing costs. 

Conclusion

Throughout the recent history of weather forecasting there have been many new advancements in weather forecasting for the common people and billion dollar companies such as JetBlue.  Weather systems such as the GRAF system and the systems created by the company Clima Cell are creating cheap options for accurate weather.  These new systems will be able to help people around the world reach their goals whether in the airline industry or in the farming industry.  In the future, weather systems will keep advancing and soon almost everyone around the world will have access to accurate weather forecasts.