Climate Matters: Loss of climate research affects weather model accuracy

Meteorologists get weather information from a variety of sources, and with a variety of federal cuts coming, that could affect multiple facets of weather forecasting.

Clouds are a simple but important example. Clouds are an everyday part of our forecasts, but they are also where research is focusing to improve weather models. Scientists can research how clouds change and use that data to make models more accurate, which leads to better forecasts.

With less funding and less research, the opposite happens, and models become less accurate. Dr. Anthony Lupo, a professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Missouri, says this hurts forecasts. "The loss of data, of course, is going to hurt our forecasts, because what we teach our students is one of the things we need is more data. More data." Lupo says.

Data is critical to the overall performance of weather models. "The ability of a weather model to do well depends on having enough data and enough computing power to process that data. And so, without that, forecasts will generally be less accurate." Lupo says, "I mean, you can compare weather forecasts made 30 years ago to today, and you can see the vast improvement."

Dr. Lupo also says that when climate research is affected, this trickles down to our everyday forecasts. "Climate research involves everything from looking at past trends and what past weather could have been, all the way up to models which project out to the future. If we can increase our understanding of those things, that's going to trickle down into the weather as well." He says.

These funding cuts are still just a proposal that has to be approved by Congress before taking effect for fiscal year 2026.