Weather Company deploying sensors in South America, Africa to improve forecasting

The Weather Company is deploying 100 weather observing stations in Chile and India to help these governments better anticipate and track local weather extremes, the company announced Thursday.

In addition, the company, which is now part of IBM, will deploy 300 personal weather stations in Kenya, Nigeria and other African nations that are currently underserved by weather agencies and private weather companies.

This initiative is being coordinated with city and national governments as well as the World Meteorological Organization, a U.N. agency, to ensure these weather stations are deployed in strategic locations that can have the most impact on forecast accuracy.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

According to a company press release, the weather observations could improve agricultural management, aviation forecasting and the insurance industry.

Unlike in most developed countries, where weather information is so abundant, there are hundreds of weather apps available for download and numerous private forecasting companies, huge swaths of Africa are practically blank when it comes to weather and climate data.

This hampers scientists' ability to track the changing climate and extreme weather events in such regions, and also constrains the ability of citizens to anticipate changing weather conditions when planting crops, buying insurance or conducting other weather-dependent business transactions.

“This is the most exciting time in the history of meteorology,” said Cameron Clayton, the CEO and general manager of The Weather Company, in an interview with Mashable. “The reason is tightly tied to this expansion of sensors."

The two cities that will receive 100 personal weather stations as part of this initiative are Santiago, Chile and Vizag, India.

"In the U.S. especially, we are very used to hav[ing] accurate weather information at our fingertips," said Mary Glackin, the Weather Company's head of science and forecast operations and senior vice president for public-private partnerships.

"That isn't true for much of the developing world. To produce a good forecast, you need to start with basic observations," Glackin said.

The Weather Company expects to benefit from these instrument deployments as well, in the form of better data for its weather forecasts.

Clayton says the personal weather station network has already resulted in a 5 percent improvement in forecast accuracy for the company.

"That's a huge number," he said. “That ultimately means those countries will get a more accurate weather forecast for us.”

Since the company's various brands, such as Weather Underground, cover natural disasters worldwide, Clayton said it's important for the company to help countries better anticipate and withstand such events.

“We felt like it’s our responsibility to do as much as we possibly can to improve weather forecasting,” he said.

Through Weather Underground, The Weather Company has so far deployed more than 200,000 weather stations in 195 countries, with the data increasingly flowing into IBM's Watson Internet of Things platform.

Glackin told Mashable that while it is true that the personal weather stations are not as reliable as the National Weather Service's network of observing stations, they still fill an important role.

The personal weather station network is "designed to provide a low cost method to observe basic weather parameters," she said in an email interview.

"Weather Underground performs a comprehensive quality control of all PWS data to ensure only accurate data is used for our forecast purposes," she said.

"So, some data doesn't make it into our forecasts."

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