Tell Congress to save U.S. weather forecasting!

In an extraordinary technological achievement, a new AI-based weather forecasting system has outperformed all other models in predicting the course of India’s monsoon rains in 2025. Based on a blend of AI models from Google and the Europe-wide ECMWF agency and assembled by India’s government plus an international team of researchers and philanthropists, the final blended models are small enough to run on a laptop. The team sent weekly AI-powered monsoon forecasts to 38 million farmers across 13 Indian states, and those forecasts were able to accurately predict rain patterns up to four weeks in advance, comparted to five days for older weather forecasting models. The AI forecasts also correctly predicted an unusual “stall” in which the rains paused for 20 days starting in June, which no traditional model had predicted. One-quarter of the 38 million farmers — almost ten million people! — reported adjusting their plans in response to the forecasts. This is an INCREDIBLE new tool to safeguard farm yields and human safety in a chaotic climate!

Incredible new advances are being developed in the field of weather forecasting — but America is eviscerating its once world-leading weather forecasting field right when there’s a historic opportunity to explore amazing new tools. After the current administration’s legally dubious funding claw-backs, the National Science Foundation shut down its support of the renowned AI2ES research collaboration that had been designed to build a pipeline of American AI weather forecasting experts. The White House has proposed massive budget cuts to vital atmospheric science research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), and there’s already a bipartisan push forming in the House and Senate to reject this sabotage.

Meanwhile, China is investing heavily in AI weather forecasting. China’s already-built MAZU model, built to share with the CCP’s partners in developing countries, is reportedly already being used by 35 cities around the world.

The current White House tries to ignore it, but the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse, not the president. Ensuring robust U.S. weather forecasting is now more important than ever, and Congress must act to safeguard this national security priority from ideological sabotage.

Tell Congress to save U.S. weather forecasting!