On May 6, 2024, NOAA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) hosted a joint workshop on the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to transform weather prediction. NOAA and OSTP joined experts from academia and the private sector to discuss new developments, current challenges, and potential cross-sector collaboration to best utilize AI for weather prediction to improve Americans’ ability to protect lives and property as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
“Participants from industry, universities, and government agencies highlighted the exciting opportunities but also the interesting challenges for AI to vastly improve weather forecasting,” said White House Office of Science and Technology Deputy Director Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D. “The knowledge, experiences, and relationships from the workshop will enrich NOAA’s approaches going forward.”
The workshop covered a wide range of topics, including anticipating benefits and challenges of AI for weather prediction, building and maintaining trust in AI systems, and exploring scientific unknowns that pose the biggest challenges. Early results using AI and data-driven models show enhanced skill in predicting extreme life-threatening events like hurricanes, winter storms, and heat waves — highlighting the opportunity of these new models as valuable tools in the suite used to produce forecasts that protect lives and property.
Through the workshop, NOAA strengthened its commitment to working with partners to build the infrastructure for trustworthy weather AI models that support decision making. A critical next step is expanding the reach and accessibility of NOAA data products to better serve AI users across sectors.
“The rapid pace of advancements in artificial intelligence for numerical weather prediction has made urgent the need for NOAA to assess the state of the science and operational capabilities,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction, Michael C. Morgan, Ph.D. “This workshop was an important step in scoping how NOAA can responsibly integrate the latest technology into research and operations, and ultimately better serve the nation.”
Virtual and in-person workshop participants included representatives from:
Academia
- California Institute of Technology
- Colorado State University
- New York University
- University of Albany
- University of California at San Diego
- University of Colorado
- University of Florida
- University of Maryland
- University of Oklahoma
- University of Washington
Federal Agencies
- U.S. National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- U.S. Department of Defense
Private sector
- Amazon Web Services
- Microsoft
- Nvidia
- The Weather Company
Research
- The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
- The National Center for Atmospheric Research
Learn more about how NOAA is harnessing AI to improve weather forecasting.