Weather forecasts: The tech giants use AI but is it any good?

Accurate weather forecasts are not just vital for planning our daily lives but knowing about upcoming severe weather can help us to change our behaviour, save lives and mitigate damage to property.

It is impossible to assess the full economic value of weather forecasts globally, but the numbers are huge.

According to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), in the US alone – and just taking into account the biggest weather disasters that caused over $1bn (£740m) in damage – the fallout from severe weather in 2024 amounted to $182bn, with 568 fatalities.

Since 1980, this damage figure stands at nearly $3tn!

Meanwhile, in the UK, there were 1,311 excess deaths caused by heatwaves in 2024.

A study from consultants, external, London Economics, concluded that the Met Office would bring £56bn of benefits to the UK economy over the course of a decade through providing meteorological services.

Multiply these kinds of numbers across the whole world, with a growing population exposed to increasingly extreme weather fuelled by climate change, and weather is big business.