AI sharpens hurricane forecasts, but humans still call the shots

Résumé détaillé

AI improves hurricane forecasts, but human specialists still play a vital role, according to the US National Hurricane Center. Read more at straitstimes.com.

For Hurricane Isaias, DeepMind’s model recognised it could become a tropical cyclone a full week before it formed.

WASHINGTON – AI is often criticised for the energy its data centres consume, which is driving more fossil fuel use and contributing to climate change.

But it is also helping meteorologists make markedly more accurate forecasts, including for hurricanes, which are notoriously complex to predict and pose a growing threat in a warming world.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) began using Google DeepMind’s AI model in 2025 and is working with the company on developing its successor.

The work has come to the fore in 2026 – as an intense El Nino weather pattern led to a record number of hurricanes in the Pacific, and Hurricane Isaias struck the south-eastern United States in October as a major storm.

Ferran Alet, a DeepMind research scientist who leads its cyclone work, explained that Google does not have a hurricane-specific model – rather, it is the same model used for everyday weather, pushed to its limits.

“We see extreme weather as almost like something we should strive for because it’s the most challenging thing for us and then everything will follow,” he told AFP.

Prior to AI, the NHC used several kinds of models to forecast tropical cyclones. “Dynamical” models use supercomputers to solve the equations of fluid motion and thermodynamics that govern the atmosphere.

Statistical models rely on historical relationships between storm behaviour and variables such as location and date, and hybrids combine physics and statistics.

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