arXiv Machine Learning By Kornelius Raeth, Nicole Ludwig

Forecast Skill Is Not Decision Skill: Evidence from Weather-Dependent Decision Tasks

Read the original on arXiv Machine Learning →

The paper argues that traditional weather forecast evaluations, which focus on statistical comparisons between forecasts and observations, do not adequately capture how forecasts influence real-world decisions. It introduces decision calibration, a framework that assesses probabilistic forecast performance from the decision-maker’s perspective. Using this framework, the authors compare a machine learning model to a classical numerical weather prediction model across various weather-dependent decision tasks, finding that forecast-level performance does not reliably predict decision-level outcomes and that model rankings can shift depending on the decision context.

Machine-generated by The Flow from the publisher's headline and feed description — not written or checked by a human. The full article lives at arXiv Machine Learning.

arXiv AI
Jun 3

AdaWeather: Adaptively Mixing Probabilistic Weather Forecasts with Logarithmic Regret

arXiv:2606. 02663v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Recent advances in machine learning have produced probabilistic weather forecasting models comparable to state-of-the-art numerical weather predictors.

By Saptarishi Dhanuka (Ashoka University), Sarvesh Iyer (Ashoka University), Manmeet Singh (Western Kentucky University), Mihir More (Ashoka University), Rushil Gupta (Ashoka University), Dhruman Gupta (Ashoka University), Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay (Ashoka University), Sandeep Juneja (Ashoka University)
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 7

Advancing Subseasonal Forecasting with Machine Learning

The paper introduces Probabilistic Bias Correction (PBC), a machine learning framework that learns to correct historical probabilistic forecasts, thereby reducing systematic errors in subseasonal weather predictions. Applied to leading dynamical and AI models from ECMWF, PBC doubles the AI system’s modest subseasonal skill and improves the operationally-debiased dynamical model for most pressure, temperature, and precipitation targets. In ECMWF’s 2025 real‑time forecasting competition, PBC’s global forecasts ranked first across all weather variables and lead times, outperforming multiple operational and ensemble models.

By Hannah Guan, Soukayna Mouatadid, Paulo Orenstein, Judah Cohen, Haiyu Dong, Zekun Ni, Jeremy Berman, Genevieve Flaspohler, Alex Lu, Jakob Schloer, Joshua Talib, Jonathan A. Weyn, Lester Mackey
arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 13

Enhancing AI and Dynamical Subseasonal Forecasts with Probabilistic Bias Correction

arXiv:2604. 16238v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Decision-makers rely on weather forecasts to plant crops, manage wildfires, allocate water and energy, and prepare for weather extremes.

By Hannah Guan, Soukayna Mouatadid, Paulo Orenstein, Judah Cohen, Haiyu Dong, Zekun Ni, Jeremy Berman, Genevieve Flaspohler, Alex Lu, Jakob Schloer, Joshua Talib, Jonathan A. Weyn, Lester Mackey
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 31

How Proper Scoring Rules Shape LLM Forecasting

The paper investigates how different proper scoring rules influence the performance and behavior of large language model (LLM) forecasters. Five scoring rules were compared as training objectives for binary forecasts of real-world events, revealing that while they all theoretically incentivize truthful probability reporting, they produce models with varying calibration, probability usage, and bias, information, and noise profiles. The Brier-trained model achieved the lowest Brier score and highest AUC-ROC, whereas the log-trained model achieved the best log score and lowest calibration error, indicating that scoring rule choice can shape both forecast accuracy and error structure.

By Benjamin Turtel, Paul Wilczewski, Kris Skotheim, Ville A. Satop\"a\"a, Philip E. Tetlock