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National Weather Service Upgrades Storm-Tracking Supercomputers
Nerval's Lobster writes "Just in time for hurricane season, the National Weather Service has finished upgrading the supercomputers it uses to track and model super-storms. 'These improvements are just the beginning and build on our previous success. They lay the foundation for further computing enhancements and more accurate forecast models that are within reach,' National Weather Service director Louis W. Uccellini wrote in a statement. The National Weather Service's 'Tide' supercomputer — along with its 'Gyre' backup — are capable of operating at a combined 213 teraflops. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which runs the Service, has asked for funding that would increase that supercomputing power even more, to 1,950 teraflops. The National Weather Service uses that hardware for projects such as the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model, a complex bit of forecasting that allows the organization to more accurately predict storms' intensity and movement. The HWRF can leverage real-time data taken from Doppler radar installed in the NOAA's P3 hurricane hunter aircraft."
This seems to be another dupe: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/07/26/005230/noaa-goes-live-with-new-forecasting-supercomputers
last few months they would be saying at least 80% chance of rain the next day and it would turn out to be sunny. even with major storms coming
i've been using baseball game rainouts in the midwest for my weather planning
It did mitigate Katrina.
People in the path had time to get out of the way.
Those that remained were trapped, one way or another, and could not leave.
Without the predictions there would have been a HUGE number of additional fatalities (easily in the 10s of thousands, not just 1,833 ).
Where the incompetence showed up was government response to an emergency.
Don't expect any thing better either.
US weather satellites are rapidly dying... these need to be replaced
Spoken by somebody who has not experienced a severe storm. Just 2 days ago we had tropical storm Flossie hit us. The predictions saved *a lot* of damage and maybe lives. It gave time to inform fisherman of the coming ocean conditions. It gave time for first responders and utilities to prepare. It gave me time to secure my home. It turns out that in my area, it didn't last very long but had intense lightning/thunder that shook my house, followed by intense wind that shook my house, and heavy, horizontal rain. I only lost power for about an hour and half and water was unaffected, thanks to the preparations of our utility providers.
Now that said, we didn't know exactly when it would hit or what areas would be affected how much. Were we to have had more precision, we could saved a lot of time and effort in the areas that it didn't hit while focusing on the areas that it did hit. So, while supercomputers are expensive, storm prediction saves more money than it costs [citation needed, I know I know]. If it had been a full on hurricane, then the more precise the prediction the more millions of dollars in damage (not to mention grief and potentially lives) it'll save.