Weather updates allow people to stay safe by knowing when extreme weather is approaching. They provide information on a range of factors such as wind speed, wave heights, precipitation and humidity. In addition, meteorological reports are crucial for protecting cities from cyclones, heat waves, and flooding. Having accurate forecasts several days in advance means housing can be protected, and emergency services can be on standby to respond.
Weather forecasts are widely available, with newspaper, television and radio the main sources for presenting them. They also play an important role in marine navigation, with detailed marine weather forecasts being transmitted to vessels through radio systems such as RTTY and Navtex.
The quality of national weather forecasts has improved substantially in recent years, with estimates suggesting that they are five times as accurate as they were 40 years ago. This substantial improvement has led to great benefits in many countries, such as reducing traffic accidents by 0.5% per hour of lead time. But despite these gains, there is still much work to be done.
For example, in poorer countries there are far fewer land-based instruments and radars to measure meteorological data. There is a large gap between high-income and low-income countries, and this gap must be closed to make sure that the benefits of improving forecasts reach everyone. Faster and more efficient technologies are key to this, such as sensor-carrying drones that can run surveys to build up higher-resolution maps and disseminate information quickly.