Drones on the Job: Weatherman?

Written by Andre Louis-Ferdinand

As of right now, weather is predicted using mainly radar, satellites, and ground observation machines. However, weathermen fail terribly at accurately predicting the weather a lot of the time. Famous analytical guru Nate Silver says, "TV weathermen aren’t bothering to make accurate forecasts because they figure the public won’t believe them anyway. But the public shouldn’t believe them, because the forecasts aren’t accurate."

After all, "We all rely on these weather forecasts to plan our day-to-day activities. For example, before planning a summer grill out over the weekend, we’ll check our favorite weather web site to see whether it’s going to rain." However, this is just the micro of weather prediction. What about the macro? Companies that grow your food, gather, and process your water, fly your airplanes, and sail your cruise liners really depend on accurate information to plan their operations. Inaccurate forecasts can cause oversupply (waste), under-supply (high demand), or accidents (deaths) for essential goods and services. Of course, we’re always left to wonder: Just how accurate are these forecasts?

For those who aren’t in the know: Most of the weather forecasts out there for the U.S. are originally based on data from the U.S. National Weather Service, a government-run agency tasked with measuring and predicting everything related to weather across all of North America. Commercial companies like The Weather Channel then build off of those data products and forecasts and try to produce a “better” forecast. However, even with this prediction redundancy, weathermen are notorious for getting it wrong. Could weather prediction get far better in the near future?

"The Oklahoma State University and three other universities in partnership have been provided $6 million by the National Science Foundation to develop a drone which can help enhance weather forecasting by evaluating and studying atmospheric physics. The research will be conducted over a period of four years."

The aim of the research is to develop an affordable unmanned aircraft system which can be used by multiple stakeholders, such as government, universities, and private users to understand the conditions prevailing in the atmosphere and to forecast the weather more effectively. According to the principal investigator of the project, Jamey Jacob, drones will be one of the commonly used tools in atmospheric physics and meteorology. Researchers are confident that this effort will be regarded as a game-changer in the field of meteorology and the study of atmospheric physics. Are you prepared for a drone weatherman?