DeepMind Blog

Introducing WeatherNext 3, our most advanced and accurate global weather AI model

arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 4

WeatherNext 3: Increasing resolution and performance of global weather models with raw observations

WeatherNext 3 is a new AI‑driven global weather model that improves both spatial and temporal resolution by generating hourly forecasts at 0.1° resolution, matching the best physics‑based models. It incorporates low‑latency geostationary satellite data and learns to predict satellite‑derived precipitation, tropical cyclones, and station observations, enabling 2 m temperature and dewpoint predictions anywhere and anytime. By directly using raw observations instead of relying solely on analysis data, WeatherNext 3 sets a new state‑of‑the‑art for probabilistic medium‑range forecasting skill.

By Stephan Rasp, Boris Babenko, Dominic Masters, Andrew El-Kadi, Samier Merchant, Guy Shalev, Ilan Price, Fred Zyda, Remi Lam, Sasha Shysheya, Matthew Willson, Stratis Markou, Shreya Agrawal, Suhani Vora, Mohammed Alewi Hassen, Sunny Mak, Tom R. Andersson, Megan Bela, Akib Uddin, Nofar Peled Levi, Ben Gaiarin, Ferran Alet, Aaron Bell, Peter Battaglia, Alvaro Sanchez-Gonzalez
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 25

Improving global precipitation forecasts with an AI weather model trained on satellite observations

The paper presents Laxmi, a retrained version of the AIFS weather model that uses satellite-based precipitation observations instead of ERA5 reanalysis data. Laxmi achieves a 19% improvement in global probabilistic accuracy, reduces drizzle overprediction by 33%, and boosts the 95th percentile Brier skill score by 57%. In a case study of 10 Indian tropical storms, Laxmi accurately forecasted 150 mm event-total precipitation in 7 events, outperforming both the original AIFS and the leading physical model IFS.

By Julian F. Schmitt, Bertrand Delorme, Robert C. King, Yashica Patodia, Tapio Schneider, Aditi Sheshadri, Ravi Jain
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 4

Improving precipitation forecasts in an AI weather model using observational data

The paper presents a graph-transformer AI weather model that is fine‑tuned with high‑resolution IMERG precipitation observations, moving beyond the traditional reliance on the ERA5 reanalysis dataset. This approach yields up to a 19% improvement in medium‑range continuous ranked probability scores and a 57% better Brier skill score for extreme rainfall compared to leading operational models, while also excelling in tropical storm and drizzle prediction. The study demonstrates that directly incorporating observation‑based precipitation data into AI training can markedly enhance forecast accuracy, though physics‑based models still outperform for the heaviest events.

By Julian F. Schmitt, Bertrand Delorme, Robert C. King, Yashica Patodia, Tapio Schneider, Aditi Sheshadri, Ravi Jain
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 28

Bridging short- and medium-range weather forecasting with machine learning

The paper introduces Nested‑EAGLE, a 0.25° global weather model with a 6 km refinement over the contiguous United States, designed to merge short‑ and medium‑range forecasts into a single system. It shows lower mean‑squared error for near‑surface and low‑level variables over the U.S. compared to NOAA’s GFS and HRRR, while remaining competitive globally. Although precipitation forecasts are less skillful than HRRR’s deterministic training, Nested‑EAGLE delivers the most accurate storm‑location predictions at longer lead times, with blurred extrema.

By Timothy A. Smith, Mariah Pope, Sergey Frolov, Brett Basarab, Daniel Abdi, Paul Madden, Isidora Jankov
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 16

Can AI Forecast the Extremes? Evaluating Probabilistic Weather Models on Tropical Cyclones

The study evaluates probabilistic AI weather models—GenCast, FourCastNet 3, and FGN—against the ECMWF IFS-ENS ensemble for tropical cyclone forecasting. Using new probabilistic metrics, the authors find that AI models, particularly FGN, outperform IFS-ENS in cyclone tracking, achieving better location scores for 90% of storms in 2025. The analysis also identifies intensity and spread limitations, model‑specific failure modes, and the influence of pretraining data, highlighting opportunities for targeted improvement.

By Nathan Chalumeau, Xavier Renard, Remi Meynadier, Hugo Rakotoarimanga, Marcin Detyniecki, Emmanuel de Bezenac
arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 18

Benchmarking Physics-Informed Time-Series Models for Operational Global Station Weather Forecasting

arXiv:2406. 14399v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: The development of Time-Series Forecasting (TSF) models is often constrained by the lack of comprehensive datasets, especially in Global Station Weather Forecasting (GSWF), where existing datasets are small, temporally short, and spatially sparse.

By Tao Han, Zhibin Wen, Zhenghao Chen, Dazhao Du, Song Guo, Lei Bai