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Swiss weather tech company Meteomatics says its drones can gather atmospheric data more quickly and accurately than traditional weather balloons. Unlike balloons, which launch at fixed times and are discarded after a single use, the company's drones can be deployed on demand to track developing weather conditions like storms.
A discussion piece examines various climate-change impacts already affecting the United States, asking which of these risks receives the least public attention relative to its severity. It does not name a single definitive answer but surveys multiple ongoing effects, such as extreme heat, flooding, and drought, that are reshaping communities nationwide.
NOAA released its winter forecast this week, saying a strong El Niño pattern will heavily influence precipitation and temperature trends across the U.S. The agency's outlook maps show wetter-than-average conditions expected across southern states while parts of the northern U.S. are likely to see below-normal precipitation.
Microsoft researchers published a study in Nature describing a machine learning system that corrects bias in existing physics-based and AI weather models, improving forecast accuracy two to six weeks ahead. The tool, now available as open-source software, can run on standard CPUs rather than requiring supercomputers or powerful GPUs.
Researchers describe a probabilistic forecasting method for predicting weather two to six weeks ahead, built on ERA5 reanalysis data from 1979-2026 and evaluated using ECMWF's AI Weather Quest competition framework. The approach forecasts temperature, precipitation and sea-level pressure as probability distributions across climatological quantile bins, scored using the Ranked Probability Skill Score.
The U.S. Air Force has awarded WindBorne Systems a contract worth up to $49 million for atmospheric data collected by its fleet of roughly 700 autonomous weather balloons. The deal, awarded without competitive bidding, lets the Air Force order data by region and time as needed, with $1.7 million in orders placed so far.
A roundup of findings explains that highway driving, high speeds and hard acceleration drain EV batteries faster than stop-and-go city driving, partly because highway trips offer less opportunity for regenerative braking. Climate control systems, especially heaters, also reduce range noticeably, while infotainment and navigation systems have minimal impact. A 2025 Recurrent study found EV range can drop nearly a third below freezing and about 18% at 100 degrees, with cargo and passenger weight further cutting range.
Forecasters say a strong El Niño climate pattern is now established and will shape U.S. weather through the winter. The pattern tends to bring warmer-than-normal conditions to the northern U.S. and wetter conditions to the South, with periodic extreme swings in temperature and storm activity.
A roundup covers practical measures homeowners can take to prepare for increasingly frequent extreme weather, alongside separate items on AI tools aimed at assisting understaffed fire departments, electronic warfare tactics in modern conflicts, and a startup pursuing a major expansion of global computing capacity.
Forecasters are tracking three separate tropical cyclones expected to make landfall along North American coastlines within a two-day span. The systems are projected to affect areas of the United States and Mexico nearly simultaneously, prompting heightened monitoring by weather agencies.
Recent climate projections show that the current El Niño event may continue for up to six months longer than typical, potentially extending into 2027. This prolonged phase could lead to sustained weather disruptions across various regions. Experts warn that the extended duration might intensify the event's global impact.
AccuWeather has released new models, shared exclusively with Fast Company, projecting how a historically strong Super El Niño could shape winter weather patterns across the United States into 2026 and 2027. The forecasts cover a range of effects including heavy snowfall, flooding, and shifts in storm activity in different regions.