DeepMind's WeatherNext model forecasts cyclones a day further ahead

Google DeepMind's WeatherNext model can now predict tropical cyclone tracks and intensity simultaneously, forecasting about a day further ahead than leading operational weather models. DeepMind has open-sourced the code and model weights on GitHub.

Why it matters: An extra day of cyclone-track lead time is operationally significant for evacuation and shipping decisions, and matches roughly a decade of incremental progress in traditional forecasting in one model generation. Open-sourcing the weights means national weather services and researchers can adopt or build on it directly rather than depending on a closed API.