This £97 million super computer will predict weather in the UK

Funding has been confirmed for a £97m supercomputer to improve the Met Office’s weather forecasting and climate modelling. The facility will work 13 times faster than the current system, enabling detailed, UK-wide forecast models with a resolution of 1.5km to be run every single hour, rather than every three. It will be built in Exeter during 2015 and become operational next September. The Met Office said it would deliver a “step change” in forecast accuracy. “It will allow us to add more precision, more detail, more accuracy to our forecasts on all time scales for tomorrow, for the next day, next week, next month and even the next century,” said Met Office chief executive Rob Varley. As well as running UK-wide and global forecasting models more frequently, the new technology will allow particularly important areas to receive much more detailed assessment.