Numerical weather prediction
Numerical weather prediction (NWP) uses mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to predict the weather based on current weather conditions. Though first attempted in the 1920s, it was not until the advent of computer simulation in the 1950s that numerical weather predictions produced realistic results. A number of global and regional forecast models are run in different countries worldwide, using current weather observations relayed from radiosondes, weather satellites and other observing systems as inputs.
Weather reconnaissance aircraft, such as this WP-3D Orion, provide data that is then used in numerical weather forecasts.
Field of cumulus clouds, which are parameterized since they are too small to be explicitly included within numerical weather prediction
Top: Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) simulation of Hurricane Rita (2005) tracks. Bottom: The spread of NHC multi-model ensemble forecast.
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th century.
The Royal Charter sank in an October 1859 storm, stimulating the establishment of modern weather forecasting.
BBC television weather chart for November 13, 1936
Ash cloud from the 2008 eruption of Chaitén volcano stretching across Patagonia from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean