WeatherNext 3: Google's AI-Driven Weather Forecasting Revolution

Google's WeatherNext 3 model is now available, and it marks a significant shift in how weather forecasts are generated. Unlike its predecessor, WeatherNext 2, which relied on numerical weather prediction (NWP) data and simulations running on supercomputers with a six-hour delay, WeatherNext 3 processes live geostationary satellite data instead.

This new approach allows for hourly updates and generates forecasts five times sharper than before. The model produces multiple resolutions, including temperature and humidity at five kilometers, other surface variables at ten, and atmospheric values like wind speed at 25.

The model's performance is also improved in regions that were previously underserved due to high compute costs for traditional regional models. WeatherNext 3 shows significant gains in regions such as Latin America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific.