The business of weather forecasting received a big improvement this week after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) rolled out a new system.
The government agency made the announcement on its website, saying its weather predicting system — called the Global Forecast System (GFS) — now includes the Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere (FV3).
The upgrade will help forecasters better predict severe weather.
"In the past few years, NOAA has made several significant technological leaps into the future — from new satellites in orbit to this latest weather model upgrade," Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said. "Through the use of this advanced model, the dedicated scientists, forecasters, and staff at NOAA will remain ever-alert for any threat to American lives and property."
Said acting NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs, Ph.D., "The significant enhancements to the GFS, along with creating NOAA's new Earth Prediction Innovation Center, are positioning the U.S. to reclaim international leadership in the global earth-system modeling community."
NOAA tested the new system by running it through three years of historical weather data, and it showed an improvement over the old system.
The old weather predicting system will run in parallel with the new one through September. After that, it will be retired.
NOAA's Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Timothy Gallaudet said last December, meanwhile, that he has never briefed President Donald Trump on climate change.