Microsoft’s Aurora AI can accurately predict weather, natural disasters

In a remarkable breakthrough, Microsoft has introduced a powerful new artificial intelligence (AI) model, named Aurora, capable of predicting air quality, hurricanes, typhoons, and other atmospheric events with high accuracy.

In a recent publication in the journal Nature, the company revealed that Aurora outperforms traditional meteorological systems in both speed and precision.

To note, the AI model was trained on over a million hours of data, including satellite imagery, radar inputs, weather station readings, simulations, and historical forecasts.

Although AI-powered weather prediction isn’t new as Google DeepMind has previously developed models like WeatherNext, Microsoft has claimed that Aurora sets a new benchmark in the field.

The model can also be fine-tuned with additional datasets to provide event-specific forecasts.

According to Microsoft, the model predicted the landfall of Typhoon Doksuri in the Philippines four days ahead of the actual event, outperforming some expert meteorologists.

It also surpassed the US National Hurricane Center in tracking tropical cyclones during the 2022–2023 season and accurately forecasted Iraq’s major sandstorm in 2022.

The company is also integrating a version of Aurora into its MSN Weather app, enabling users to receive hourly weather updates, including cloud coverage, powered by advanced AI modeling.