It is very important for society to know what the weather will be like both in the future and in the next few hours. In fact, in all its layers, Having a good weather forecast is very important because it affects us, when we plan and organize ourselves, but also everyone who has to travel, fly and even produce energy.

One tool that many of us use to learn the weather is, of course, our mobile phone. Google knows this and introduces MetNet-3 after redesigning its weather app both aesthetically and functionally. About A new weather model developed by Google Research and Google DeepMindone of the company’s artificial intelligences.

DeepMind steps in to improve accuracy over the next 24 hours

MetNet-3 is the next generation MetNet released in 2020 and MetNet-2 released in 2021 and is basically the culmination of what Google has learned and the help of artificial intelligence to create a very accurate system. Ability to view the most accurate and detailed forecast possible for the next 12 hours.

As Google points out on its blog, making predictions for the coming days is complicated, and everything is much more precise when we try to know both the weather and the forecast for the next 24 hours.

It is based on previous models but improved with a set of algorithms, according to the company: They take into account many more parameters and variables such as precipitation, surface temperature, wind speed and direction, and even dew point.

Here’s what Google is going for with this: A very detailed system that allows us to obtain information practically in real time (with a two-minute delivery time) about how the weather will change in the next 12 hours.

In fact, Google is very confident in its system and has compared it with ENS, used by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and MRMS, a multi-radar and multi-sensor system that predicts precipitation.

In the GIF below we can see: Difference between ENS system, MRMS Ground Truth and Google MetNet-3:

Aside from the fact that the ENS system stumbles as it gives data every 60 minutes and the other two models give data every 2 minutes, what is impressive about MetNet-3 is that it not only shows where the precipitation will occur, but also shows where the precipitation will occur. pattern and the probability that the rate of precipitation will be higher or lower.

In the app and Google search, we can see this breakdown by minute to know precisely both the rainfall and other factors for the next few hours. Moreover, MetNet-3 draws from multiple sources and has a type of ‘mode’ called ‘hyperlocal’ This is based on information received from weather stations in our area and sharing this information with Google.

Wind speed chart. The lower the value, the more accurate it is

The result is a more accurate vision of weather conditions in our area, especially over the next few hours. When this goes beyond 7-8 hours, as we see in the graph, the results are closer to MetNet-3, but both are much more accurate than ENS.

MetNet-3 now operates in the United States and 27 European countries We will be available in both the Google weather application and web search under the name Google Nowcast. We’ll see how long it takes to be implemented across all areas and devices, but if we get a highly detailed estimate, even “only” 12 hours would be a huge improvement.

Cover image | Alejandro Alcolea for Xataka Android

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