What a negative Arctic oscillation revealed about forecasting winter storms, and why local observations matter

With powerful winter storms, it’s easy to focus on what’s happening at the surface: snowfall totals, wind chills and travel impacts. But the real story often begins thousands of miles away, high in the atmosphere, long before the first flakes ever fall.

In March 2026, a major winter storm swept across the Midwest USA, and it didn’t start with snow or wind. It started with a subtle shift far to the north, where the atmosphere over the Arctic began to lose its usual structure and stability, setting off a chain reaction that would eventually reshape weather across much of the USA.

Continue reading FEATURE: How the Arctic oscillation fueled widespread winter storms at Meteorological Technology International.

As utilities face mounting pressure to strengthen grid resilience in the face of increasingly severe and localized weather events, access to higher-resolution forecasting is becoming critical for operational planning. In the Greater Houston area, CenterPoint Energy has integrated the US1k high-resolution weather model developed by Meteomatics to better anticipate and respond to extreme weather across the region. 

In this Q&A, Meteomatics senior account executive Chris Hyde discusses how the US1k model’s hyper-local forecasting capabilities are helping utilities improve situational awareness, make faster operational decisions and strengthen grid resilience as climate-driven weather risks continue to intensify. 

Continue reading EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Chris Hyde, energy lead at Meteomatics at Meteorological Technology International.

From disrupted GPS signals to risks for satellites and astronauts, severe space weather can have far-reaching consequences. But researchers from the US National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), have developed a tool with huge potential to mitigate these impacts. Mausumi Dikpati, the senior scientist who led the team, discusses how PINNBARDS (PINN-Based Active Regions Distribution Simulator), a newly developed physics-informed, AI-enabled modeling framework, could transform forecasting by predicting flare-producing solar active regions weeks before they emerge

Your new tool, PINNBARDS, is described as enabling the first steps toward space-weather forecasting weeks in advance rather than hours.

Continue reading EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Mausumi Dikpati, NSF NCAR senior scientist at Meteorological Technology International.

Following her appearance in the ‘Climbing for climate: sustainable monitoring in extreme environments’ panel discussion at Meteorology Technology World Expo 2025, WMO expert Rodica Nitu spoke with Meteorological Technology International about the urgent need to strengthen cryosphere observations. She discussed the technical, governance and communication challenges of monitoring Earth’s coldest regions, and the global collaboration required to preserve these vital climate records for future generations.

You’ve spent many years leading WMO’s work on the cryosphere and polar infrastructure. From your perspective, what are the most urgent priorities for strengthening observations in these regions?
There are three broad priorities: technical, governance and implementation.

Continue reading EXPO INTERVIEW: Rodica Nitu, international cryosphere and polar infrastructure expert at Meteorological Technology International.

The ‘Climbing for climate: sustainable monitoring in extreme environments’ session at the Meteorological Technology World Expo conference on October 14 brought together experts to discuss ways to strengthen observing systems in some of the world’s harshest environments and expand Project Wayra ahead of the 5th International Polar Year. Chaired by OTT HydroMet’s Jay Pabustan, the panel featured Øystein Godøy (Norwegian Meteorological Institute), Rémy Giraud (WMO/ Météo-France), Rodica Nitu (WMO), Ashish Raval (Synoptic PBC) and Tom Matthews (King’s College London).

Speaking during the session, Godøy emphasized the need to make existing cryospheric data more accessible and reusable. Through initiatives like the WMO’s Global Cryosphere Watch and the GCW Data Publication Service, he and his colleagues are working to lower the barriers for scientists to share and publish FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) datasets.

Continue reading EXPO INTERVIEW: Øysten Godøy, Norwegian Meteorological Institute at Meteorological Technology International.

NASA and ISRO are preparing to launch NISAR, a groundbreaking Earth observation satellite that will deliver unprecedented insights into climate, ecosystems and natural hazards using dual-frequency radar technology, writes Keri Allan in the September 2025 issue of Meteorological Technology International

NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are aiming to launch their joint NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite mission soon (slated for July 2025 at the time of print). Scheduled to blast off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India’s southeastern coast, the satellite will be the first to carry both an L-band and S-band radar.

Continue reading FEATURE: NISAR satellite case study at Meteorological Technology International.

University of Connecticut research writer Elaina Hancock speaks with Marina Astitha, associate professor at UConn’s Environmental Engineering/Atmospheric and Air Quality Research Group, and her team to explore how they are using AI to better predict storms over Connecticut and the Northeast USA.

Predicting future weather conditions over broad, or even narrow, swathes of Earth’s surface comes down to complex microphysical processes, and as College of Engineering associate professor and UConn Atmospheric and Air Quality Modeling Group leader Marina Astitha puts it, “nature is chaotic”.

Astitha and her research group are at the forefront of exploring ways to improve weather prediction using AI and machine learning to enhance existing physics-based models.

Continue reading INTERVIEW: University of Connecticut at Meteorological Technology International.

Today marks 100 years since the Shipping Forecast was first broadcast on the BBC, and it’s been guiding mariners through rough seas and calm waters ever since.

The Shipping Forecast is produced by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) as part of the UK’s statutory obligations to provide Maritime Safety Information to seafarers via approved broadcasting methods. The Shipping Forecast is also shared with the BBC for its own broadcast.

This partnership represents an enduring and successful collaboration in public service. Throughout a century of technological and social change, it has remained steadfast in its commitment to maritime safety, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

Continue reading FEATURE: A century of the Shipping Forecast at Meteorological Technology International.

Emily Ashe, communications specialist contractor for NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, explains how a network of year-round observing stations help the team’s meteorologists forecast extreme rainfall events.

As the western USA heads into its traditional dry season, water managers are assessing how winter rains have helped replenish the region’s reservoirs. The vast majority of precipitation that falls during the wet season results from atmospheric rivers (ARs) that rain down life-sustaining water but can also cause costly destruction. These fast-moving “rivers” of water vapor in the sky supply up to half of the region’s annual precipitation, with stronger ARs responsible for the majority of flood damages along the West Coast.

Continue reading FEATURE: Atmospheric river research that serves up data rain or shine at Meteorological Technology International.

In the lead-up to Canada’s increasingly extreme wildfire season, Ramla Qureshi, an assistant professor in McMaster University’s Department of Civil Engineering, explores how cutting-edge meteorological technology is influencing the future of climate-adaptive cities.

How do extreme weather events, such as wildfires and hurricanes, affect your work and the structural integrity of buildings and infrastructure?

Thermal expansion and contraction occur in all materials as temperatures fluctuate. However, exposure to extreme heat, such as what can be expected in a structurally significant fire, induces plastic (or, in other words, irreversible) material degradation in non-combustible construction materials, such as steel and concrete, and can ignite combustible materials like wood.

Continue reading EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Ramla Qureshi, McMaster University’s Department of Civil Engineering at Meteorological Technology International.