Research using AI to better predict severe weather

05/05/2022

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma are trying to take the artificial intelligence used in your smartphone and apply it recognizing weather patterns. Dr. Amy McGovern at the University of Oklahoma is currently researching large data sets from severe weather events that can be interpreted by artificial intelligence to detect patterns that will help them predict future events.

“For the Oklahoma severe weather, we are looking at predicting hail, tornadoes, wind and lightning and taking the data that is relevant and then give you trustworthy outputs that tell you what the probability of that event is,” Dr. McGovern said. “So it could be over the next 0-1 hour which is now casting. It could be that you’re looking at tomorrows probability.”

But for fans of their local meteorologist, Dr. McGovern states she sought to develop this software to try and augment the skills of forecasters, not replace them. “In real time the forecasters cannot possibly pay attention to 12 or 16 screens at once and be able to help identify the critical parts,” Dr. McGovern said. “If you’ve got more algorithms behind the scene that say ‘Hey, you could ignore this one. It’s probably not going to do anything. You need to focus on this one. It’s probably going to do something.’ That can help.” Dr. McGovern anticipates the research will result in an active useable platform in the next several years.