Google DeepMind helped the National Hurricane Center better predict Hurricane Melissa's historic landfall in Jamaica

In October 2025, Hurricane Melissa became the strongest hurricane on record to hit Jamaica and tied for the strongest in the Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) used Google DeepMind's AI model WeatherNext, which for the first time predicted a storm reaching Category 5 intensity starting from Category 1 wind speed. WeatherNext predicted the rapid intensification and landfall in Jamaica with high confidence five days in advance. This was a historic breakthrough because traditional models either excelled at predicting track or intensity, but not both. WeatherNext bridges this gap by training on decades of global weather data and specialized tropical cyclone datasets, running ensembles of 50 different scenarios. The NHC, supported by WeatherNext and physics-based models, provided the Meteorological Service Jamaica with unprecedented lead time. Across the 2025 hurricane season, WeatherNext was the top-performing individual model for track and intensity. Google is expanding these research capabilities to other regions including the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Vietnam, with future priorities in Japan, Australia, and India.