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Supercomputers Race to Predict Storms

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the chasing-storms-in-trucks dept.

pillageplunder writes "CNN has an interesting article on how different supercomputers from around the world are working to predict large storms tracks. The 3 days it takes now has been cut in half. Cool read."

13 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Can it predict the Presidential Election??? by lateralus_1024 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh wait, that's the job of the Diebold supercomputer.

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    If you think /. comments are bad, check out Digg.
    1. Re:Can it predict the Presidential Election??? by tympanic · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, you misunderstood. The Diebold supercomputer ("Big Brother") doesn't predict the election, it decides it.

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      "Memo to myself, do the dumb things I gotta do. Touch the puppet head." -TMBG
  2. Twister by Transient0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll be impressed when I see supercomputers chasing tornadoes around Kansas in rusty pickup trucks. Not before.

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    lysergically yours
  3. Stating the obvious by alatesystems · · Score: 3, Funny

    I like how the article says: Just as a 5-megapixel digital camera more accurately depicts reality than a 1-megapixel device, higher resolution grids can capture a better picture of the atmosphere and help produce accurate forecasts.

    Way to pitch to the high-tech crowd CNN :)

    But....... imagine a beowulf cluster of these weather predicting supercomputers.

    Chris

  4. Re:Earth Simulator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    You're thinking of the Neo-Geo. Lack of games, and a shift to home consoles ate away at it's popularity. Not to mention that terrible golf game.

  5. Pretty fast... by BalorTFL · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...but still not as fast as "nowcasting" (and yes, it's an actual meteorological term.) I've always wondered why the local news just has to tell us, "And in downtown it is currently raining at the moment." The people who go outside already know, and the rest of us don't care.

  6. Fortran? Eyew. by YetAnotherName · · Score: 4, Funny

    The models -- actually complicated software written in a computer language called Fortran -- attempt to account for everything happening in the atmosphere on a global basis.

    Well no wonder weather prediction is so off!

    I kid, I kid ... actually I used to work for the National Weather Service ... C++, Tcl/Tk, and even Fortran ...

  7. I'll save them the trouble... by hey · · Score: 4, Funny

    The storms will hit the Caribbean and Florida in September.

  8. HAL, where will the storm land HAL? by ARRRLovin · · Score: 2, Funny

    Next they'll have sensor strapped to the back of every butterfly on earth, increasing hurricane predictability 10 fold.

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    -Randy
  9. Best line by GraWil · · Score: 4, Funny
    The models -- actually complicated software written in a computer language called Fortran -- attempt to account for everything happening in the atmosphere on a global basis.
    As someone who spends days (and many nights) extending and debugging crufty old radiative transfer models within numerical weather prediction code, FORTRAN is the rule, not the exception. What is this c++ everyone on \. keeps talking about?
  10. Re:the 3 days it takes? by bhima · · Score: 4, Funny

    If we're not RTFA why should the submitter?

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    Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  11. Re:Earth Simulator by someguyintoronto · · Score: 2, Funny

    Predicting if you need your umbrella tomorrow in Bristol does not require any super computer... yes, you do.

  12. Re:See the models by kayak334 · · Score: 2, Funny

    From the looks of the Ivan link, it appears as if the entire South Eastern United States will be destroyed in a few days.