Ask the Expert: The Future of Weather Forecasting
How AI is leveling up marine forecasts.
By: Arnaud Monges, PredictWind Meteorologist
The Role of AI in Weather Forecasting
AI weather models are new, but this is also just another weather model at the end of the day. PredictWind offers those 2 new models PWAi and AIFS, alongside traditional weather forecasts. So users can find those models all across the PredictWind ecosystem, which includes: Forecast Map, Tables, Daily Briefing and also weather tools such as Weather routing or Departure planning.
The AI weather models have a completely different design than traditional physics-based models, which make their forecast unique. Experts around the world have identified that AI weather often outperforms traditional models, which leads to higher accuracy and better decisions you can make on the water.
AI in Your Hand: Tools for Safety and Custom Routing
PredictWind is leveraging AI to improve forecast accuracy and to transform data into actionable safety and performance tools.
Our hyper-accurate AI-Polars use the power of the DataHub device, designed by PredictWind; it analyzes boat data while you are sailing and leverages the power of AI to fine tune your boat polar based on how you sail your boat, resulting in a truly customized polar, rather than a generic one.
Earlier this year, PredictWind released the world-first Extreme Weather Alerts. These real-time safety warnings leverage AI algorithms to decode GMDSS text forecasts (meteorologically prepared warnings worldwide). The system pinpoints critical extreme weather information and delivers instant mobile notifications directly to the user’s saved locations, ensuring timely awareness of potential dangers.
The PredictRain app provides AI-refined, hyper-local forecasts and global coverage, delivering precise 6-hour predictions, instant rain alerts, and accumulated rainfall insights.
Using the power of Intercom, our customer support leverages AI and existing resources to bring immediate customer support 24/7. We ensure you can always exchange with one of our sailing experts as PredictWind believes in AI without losing human interaction.
Introducing PWAi: Clearer Wind Forecasts Sooner
Currently in Beta, PWAi is PredictWind’s new proprietary AI-powered model that combines the strengths of ECMWF, AIFS, Fengwu, and GraphCast into one optimized global forecast. With one-hour time steps for the first three days, PWAi gives a sharper, more responsive view of changing weather and is raising the bar for forecasting accuracy.
PWAi is one more essential tool in your toolbox before heading out on the water. Our model analysis reviews show that PWAi tends to outperform AIFS or ECMWF for wind forecasting. Specifically, the high-precision, one-hour time steps for the current day will help you fine-tune your schedule and make informed decisions on the water (such as your ideal departure or activity time).
About Arnaud Monges:
Arnaud's journey into meteorology began in the South of France, where, as a windsurfer before the internet era, he relied on his intuition to forecast the wind. His passion for the atmosphere led him to a Master's in Atmospheric Sciences, conducting research on hurricanes and in the Amazon forest. He later became a Team Meteorologist for the America's Cup before joining PredictWind.