Microsoft's Aurora AI Accurately Forecast Weather

Monday, May 26, 2025

While a growing number of powerful new AI models provide new tools to help better anticipate the weather, a new paper published in Nature explains how a foundation model, known as Aurora, leverages the latest advances in AI to more accurately predict not just the weather, but a wide range of environmental events in a series of retrospective analyses

Posted by retort at 10:06 PM | 7 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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Microsoft says its Aurora AI can accurately predict air quality, typhoons, and more

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-- TechCrunch (@techcrunch.com) May 23, 2025 at 1:05 PM

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Does it use a Sharpie? Asking for a president...

#1 | Posted by catdog at 2025-05-27 08:05 AM | Reply

that's cool....but if it replaces some of the "weather girls"

especially some of the ones on Televisa or Telemondo....

I'm gonna be pissed ( upset )

#2 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2025-05-27 09:24 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Bye bye meteorologists. It was a great job for humans while it lasted.

The equipment is now much more important than human employees.

The el techs jobs will still be safe for a while.. and they will be the last to turn the lights out when they leave.

#3 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-05-27 12:06 PM | Reply

AI is great at forecasting, but not so great at providing insight into how things (like weather) physically operate.

From a scientist perspective, less time spent on forecasting is more time spent on research.

And people have been losing their jobs to tech at least since we invented the wheel, possibly before. I don't think we should limit tech just so people can keep working obsolete jobs, and there is plenty of science left to do.

#4 | Posted by horstngraben at 2025-05-27 12:32 PM | Reply

Re 4

Sorry. We definitely won't limit our tech to save your job. Not in this political climate. So yes you might want to learn how to repair stuff if you want to still be useful.

Because the tech is cheaper and does not demand time off or benefits.

And does weather AI really need to provide "insight" if it can forecast more accurately than a human? No one in this administration cares about "insight". That's way too close to being Woke.

Most people just want to know if it's gonna rain or not so they can decide to carry a raincoat or umbrella to work or whether they need to use the sprinklers or can paint today, etc.

They don't really care about the why. Everything is becoming a black box. You ask a box a question and an answer comes out. No one knows how it works. No one cares.

AI is just another FAFO rapidly heading our way.

The Singularity is Nearer than we think. And you may not even know it when we cross that "event horizon". In fact.. We may already have.

#5 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-05-27 02:10 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Meteorological research continues and will continue all over the world. It just won't be us (US) leading the state of the art, thanks to Trump.

Forecasting is a means for science, not an end.

Besides, reducing uncertainty and improving prediction times in hurricane models is a good thing. More time to prepare will become increasingly important now that our federal government isn't going to help with any recovery and storms are increasing in frequency, magnitude, and spatial scale.

#6 | Posted by horstngraben at 2025-05-27 10:15 PM | Reply

@#5 ... Most people just want to know if it's gonna rain or not so they can decide to carry a raincoat or umbrella to work or whether they need to use the sprinklers or can paint today, etc.

They don't really care about the why. ...

I agree.

But I will also add, in order to get to the~raincoat or umbrella~ aspect of the forecast, there needs to be people who do care about the why.

And those people are called meteorologists

For my local TV stations, they meteorologists seems to be quite good.

For example, a couple days ago, the weather charts showed to me that there might be a chance of rain.

And the on-air meteorologists were saying that day that it may be wise to bring an umbrella, but no need for a raincoat.

#7 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-27 10:31 PM | Reply