Weather service to boost its computer power for forecasting

WASHINGTON — The National Weather Service is about to boost its computing power by more than tenfold, which officials hope will translate to better forecasts. NOAA chief Kathryn Sullivan, in a press release, said the computer boost “will lead to more timely, accurate, and reliable forecasts.” The weather service’s main computer forecast model this month will double its resolution for forecasts of less than 10 days. After a European computer model predicted the track of 2012’s Superstorm Sandy and other storms so well, meteorologists started talking about whether the U.S. was behind Europe on forecasting models, said University of Georgia meteorology professor J. Marshall Shepherd, a former president of the American Meteorological Society. Nonetheless, preliminary data shows U.S. computer models beat the European forecasts in 2014, according to NOAA spokesman Chris Vaccaro. “In this era of advanced satellite data and increasingly complex weather information, faster computers are essential for providing the type of weather forecasts needed for decision-making that saves lives and property.