DeepMind's WeatherNext AI predicts hurricanes a day earlier

In October 2025, a storm over the Caribbean Sea was tracked by WeatherNext, an AI model from Google's DeepMind and Google Research. The model predicted with 80% confidence, five days before landfall, that the storm would hit Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane. Hurricane Melissa caused catastrophic flooding and landslides, but the early warning helped communities prepare. A paper in Nature shows WeatherNext predicts cyclones with unprecedented accuracy, giving forecasters an extra day of lead time on average: its three-day forecasts are as accurate as previous models' two-day forecasts. Mike Brennan, director of the US National Hurricane Center, emphasized that even hours matter for evacuations and resource staging. Researchers trained the model on extensive weather data, not just rare cyclone events, to handle extreme conditions.