Fractal Weather Prediction

Judebert writes "Benoit Mandelbrot, the man responsible for much of the interest in fractals, spoke last month at the American Giophysical Union meeting. He explained how he has been using fractals to find order within complex systems in nature, such as coastlines and weather. (I thought he was dead, but apparently he's just been teaching at Yale.) Earth scientists have taken his fractal work to the point of forecasting the size, location, and windspeed of hurricanes at landfall. Their predictions are being made available to FEMA and other government agencies."

Comments

Re:I wonder if there's a real independent assessme

[Dancin_Santa]

Personally, I'd like to see the results of applying his technique to earthquake prediction. Above all else (hurricanes, tornados, snow storms, volcanic eruptions, etc.) earthquakes have the possibility of doing the most damage to a large area in the shortest amount of time. Being able to predict the location, time, and magnitude of them would be a boon to human existence.

As for myself, I have no need for weather prediction. Cold today, cold tomorrow. The five day forecast: cold cold cold cold cold.

Dancin Santa