Best Hurricane Forecasts of 2025 Used AI

The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season officially concluded on Nov. 30, and this season highlighted the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) for storm forecasting, CNN reported.

During the 2025 season, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) enhanced its traditional forecasting models by incorporating AI-driven models, including one created by Google DeepMind. Forecasters indicated that this AI model enabled them to achieve a significant breakthrough in accurately predicting rapid changes in a storm’s intensity.

While traditional models have become increasingly accurate in predicting the path of hurricanes in recent years, the reliability of intensity forecasts, especially regarding rapid intensification, has been less reliable.

Traditional forecasting models rely on physics and utilize complex mathematical equations to simulate the movement and interaction of heat, moisture, wind, and other atmospheric elements. The European Model and the American Global Forecast System, which have long been favored tools of the NHC, take hours to generate projections and require powerful supercomputers to operate effectively.

In contrast, the DeepMind model provided forecasters with an unusually high level of confidence that Hurricane Melissa would rapidly intensify approximately three days before it hit Jamaica as a devastating Category 5 storm. Importantly, this was the first time the NHC predicted that a storm would escalate to Category 5 status right from its formation as a Category 1 hurricane.

As climate change causes storms to intensify more frequently, predicting rapid intensification has become increasingly crucial, even as storms approach landfall. NHC forecasters highlighted the DeepMind model as a key factor in boosting their confidence in the predictions.