Weather forecasting goes private

If you’ve tried to plan a day at the park recently, you’ve probably been the victim of “unpredictable weather.” 

Driving the news: Weather forecasts have always been unreliable (since the atmosphere is changing constantly), but as the weather becomes even more unpredictable, sports leagues, airlines, and even militaries are turning to private forecasters for answers. 

• Companies like Tomorrow.io offer data once provided exclusively by governments along with detailed advice on how to deal with the changing climate.
  
  
• According to Bloomberg, the company has raised US$260 million and signed deals with Delta, Ford, the NFL, and the US Air Force in the five years since its launch. 

Why it matters: Accurate weather prediction can help the US Open go off without a hitch (last year Hurricane Ida left spectators stranded in floods), but having a better sense of the severity of disasters like Hurricane Fiona can be a matter of life and death.

How it’s happening: Private forecasters have launched their own weather satellites into orbit and aggregate data from existing sources—from weather stations to sensors on balloons—and mix in signals collected from cell towers and car windshield wipers.

• They can then provide a recommendation, like signalling to Uber that it should keep drivers out of certain areas “when wildfire smoke is blanketing the streets.” 

Yes, but: Kerry Emanuel, a meteorologist at MIT told Bloomberg he worries about privatization replacing existing government systems for sharing weather data, particularly during emergencies, with lots of little datasets that are “almost useless by themselves.”

Zoom out: While no company can anticipate exactly how extreme and volatile the weather can get these days, better technology and coverage are a small step in the right direction.