Extreme weather is an increasing liability to the economy, with 10 weather and climate disasters costing more than $1 billion each so far this year, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. During the past two years alone, Western wildfires have cost more than $40 billion, not to mention the costs of flooding in hurricane-stricken areas.
Those rising costs—along with advances in data-gathering and processing—have spurred startups and established companies to get into the business of weather forecasting, The Washington Post reports. Private weather forecasting is now a $7 billion industry.
Until recently, AccuWeather, Earth Networks, the Weather Co. and other private weather providers relied on the fire hose of data from NOAA’s National Weather Service and satellite arm, as well as NASA and other agencies.
Now companies are producing their own data and using analytics in business-savvy ways, tailoring their forecasts to specific real-world problems. And they are putting the NWS in an awkward position as it tries to fulfill its mission of protecting lives and property.
Because only the NWS can issue official weather warnings, the agency faces the prospect of having to partner with outside companies to get the best data. Not all of them are willing to share. Some of them harbor ambitions of taking over more of the federal government’s functions.
This expansion of private weather forecasting means the U.S. might be heading toward a future where the federal government may no longer be the primary source of weather information, which could have wide-ranging effects on many operations in the U.S. Read the full story.
