DeepMind says its open-source weather model gives a critical 24-hour edge on hurricane forecasts

deepmind's weathernext model, developed in collaboration with google research, has demonstrated the ability to predict cyclone intensity and track with accuracy that effectively grants forecasters an extra 24 hours of warning compared to previous models. the model successfully predicted the catastrophic hurricane melissa in october 2025, identifying it as a category 5 threat five days before landfall when it was only a category 1 storm. unlike previous ai models that struggled with intensity due to a lack of specific data, weathernext was trained on global weather patterns to infer local cyclone behavior. the model will be open-sourced, potentially revolutionizing disaster preparedness despite researchers admitting they do not yet fully understand the internal mechanisms of its predictions.