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Google Rolls Out WeatherNext 2 With Hourly, Probabilistic Forecasts

The release turns experimental AI forecasting into widely used features across Google services.

Overview

  • The model generates hundreds of scenarios from a single starting point in under a minute on one TPU, delivering eight-times faster outputs at one-hour resolution.
  • A new Functional Generative Network injects targeted noise to create physically coherent ensembles, improving joint system predictions and probabilistic accuracy.
  • WeatherNext 2 outperforms the prior model on 99.9% of tested variables and lead times up to 15 days, including temperature, wind, humidity and pressure.
  • Forecasts now power Search, Gemini, Pixel Weather and the Google Maps Weather API, with full Maps app integration set to arrive in the coming weeks.
  • Data is available in Earth Engine and BigQuery with Vertex AI early access for custom use, and research shows sharper tropical cyclone tracks that cut ensemble-mean position errors by roughly a day at three- to five-day leads, with known challenges on rare extreme rain and snow still under study.