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As the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ends, the future of forecasting is AI

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As the Atlantic hurricane season draws to a close, the most destructive storm of the year was Hurricane Melissa. The Category 5 hurricane walloped Jamaica in late October. It was the strongest storm to ever hit Jamaica, killing dozens and decimating scores of neighborhoods. There was forecast uncertainty in the days before landfall. But one particular model got it exactly right.

Meteorologists are surprised that the weather model that did the best job forecasting hurricanes this year was a new one, introduced by Google. AI may be the beginning of a new era of forecasting.

(Image credit: Ricardo Makyn)