The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Google DeepMind and Google Research have announced a partnership to develop a new AI-powered tropical weather forecasting model. The goal is to boost the accuracy and speed of hurricane predictions.

The AI model will deliver near-real-time cyclone forecasts to the NHC. Google will support this effort by hosting “Weather Lab,” a visualization platform for viewing AI outputs. NOAA plans to regularly assess the model’s performance and share updates with the public and scientific community.

Led by NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC), the initiative will help the agency rapidly evaluate and integrate AI-generated tropical cyclone forecasts to enhance public safety and preparedness. 

“The pace of weather modeling innovation is increasing and Google is a stellar partner in AI weather model development. This collaboration between NOAA and Google will ensure that NOAA’s National Hurricane Center is able to quickly evaluate new tropical cyclone forecasting technology as it arises,” Michael Brennan, director of NHC, said.

“Internal testing shows that our model’s predictions for cyclone track and intensity are as accurate as, and often more accurate than, current physics-based methods,” Google DeepMind stated in a blog post.