IBM (NYSE: IBM) and its subsidiary The Weather Company, which includes The Weather Channel digital properties, were determined to be “the overall most accurate provider globally” by ForecastWatch, a premier organization for evaluating the accuracy of weather forecasts.
In its latest comprehensive study of forecast accuracy released today,ii Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2020, commissioned by IBM, ForecastWatch named IBM’s The Weather Company as the weather forecast provider whose forecasts overall were the most accurate globally when aggregated across all geographic regions compared and time periods covered. Further, the data showed that the gap between The Weather Company (noted as The Weather Channel in the report) and the next best overall provider has increased every year of the study.iii
“A forecast is most helpful when it comes from a recognized, trusted source, and the pursuit of accuracy is at the foundation of what we seek to provide to help customers, consumers and marketers to make important decisions every day,” said Sheri Bachstein, CEO of The Weather Company and GM of IBM Watson Advertising. “The study is evidence of how IBM is helping advance the science of weather forecasting through continued innovations in AI, data and cloud computing.”
About the Report
The report is a comprehensive weather forecast accuracy study spanning four years, 1,424 global locations across eight regions of the world, and 84 different accuracy metrics covering precipitation, temperature, cloud cover and wind forecast variables. ForecastWatch analyzed about 140 million forecasts from 17 different weather providers. Each provider was noted each time it finished in first place for each metric, and according to the report, “The Weather Channel recorded the most first-place finishes globally for every year and every time period” of the providers compared.
The Weather Company forecasts are created by IBM and distributed via the IBM Cloud across The Weather Channel app and weather.com, Weather Underground app and wunderground.com, as well as weather products for IBM enterprise clients.
