U.S. upgrades its weather forecasting system, but still lags behind competitors

The National Weather Service (NWS) has completed a major upgrade to its main supercomputers, which are now processing weather data in four dimensions instead of three. The move will result in more accurate weather forecasts, the agency says.

However, the NWS still lags considerably behind several major weather centers abroad when it comes to its supercomputing capacity and the accuracy of its main weather forecasting model. These so-called weather "model wars" have pitted the NWS' Global Forecast System, also known as the GFS model, against its Canadian and European counterparts. 

The NWS improved the model last year by doubling its resolution, from breaking down the atmosphere into 27 kilometer-wide grid boxes to 13 kilometer grids.  Read more...