More Power to The National Weather Service...Literally

A major announcement coming from the National Weather Service.  The government agency said it's successfully completed a long-awaited computing upgrade . The system now comprises two supercomputers, tripling the power available for forecast generation.  This will lead to higher resolution and more accurate forecasting, including severe weather and hurricanes.

The computers were a $44.5 million project motivated by a call for forecast improvement after Hurricane Sandy.  The skill of the most reliable and trusted U.S. weather model, the GFS, was put into the spotlight after the European model, or the ECMWF, correctly predicted the storm's path.  The completion of the project, one year behind, is said to advance the computing capacity beyond the ECMWF.  

Forecast models will gradually be rolled over to the new computers over the coming months, starting with the GFS.  This particular tool will also be getting a more advanced data assimilation technique.  Also, various severe weather and storm surge models will be receiving upgrades as well.