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One example of this lies at the Met Offices fingertips – its supercomputer . As Moore ’ s Law dictates , computer processing power will only continue to expand over the coming years and the Met Office needs to be ready to tap into the potential of future supercomputers . “ Because the of scale our operations are so large , it can be difficult to predict what the technology environment will look like in the future . Take supercomputers , for example , we ’ re always looking five to ten years in the future . It ’ s important to realise what you need to change now , to be lucid and clear about what the target destination looks like .”
By all accounts , cutting-edge science and technology are the bread and butter of the weather forecasting . Whether it ' s going to be blustery or raining , the blend of the two means that we can predict the weather more accurately than ever . “ Every ten years , the weather forecast has improved with the same accuracy being available a day earlier ,” concludes Ewen . “ In other words , a four-day weather forecast is as accurate as a threeday forecast was ten years ago . That shows the rate of progress and technology undoubtedly plays an important part of that .” JANUARY 2019