IBM Introduces Weather Forecasting System for Governments, Farmers and Industries

A study by IBM & The Weather Company shows that around 94 percent of top Indian business leaders think climate change & adverse weather conditions have had a negative impact on business operations and 72 percent believe they disrupt local economy.

The report that was released on Thursday (12 December 2019) mentioned a large number of Indian citizens saying they were not confident about local weather predictions.

IBM has introduced a global high-resolution atmospheric forecasting system - IBM GRAF (Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting System) saying that more accurate weather prediction can help governments & companies significantly improve their operations.

General Manager of IBM Watson Media & Weather, Cameron Clayton said,  “We work with 168 different governments today across the world & we are in touch with Indian government as well”. He further said, “We want to work on providing exact forecasts as it has a huge impact on the GDP.”

IBM told that GRAF can help in bridging the gap between Indian forecasting system & global models.

Cameron said the fifteen-day weather forecasts released in India start from 80 percent accuracy & by the end of the thirteenth day the accuracy percentage falls to 50 percent, IBM GRAF claims to keep the accurateness levels consistent throughout the 15-day.

Cameron added that “In the tests we ran, our model is around 30 percent more accurate (as compared to Indian system) & we have so far designed to issue 12 million pieces of forecast information via IBM GRAF that will improve the forecast quality massively in India. Though we have collaborated with different governments all over the country, we believe that the only way to get there is through public-private partnership.”

IBM is eager to present its forecasting models to India via a public-private partnership agreement. It said its weather forecasting models have helped Kenya farmers receive crop insurance in less than 3 days.