Weather models have been in the news recently, and the US weather model has been under fire for the reasons that it seems as though the European Weather Model is out doing the US model and is predicting the weather more accurately.  There are many reasons behind this, but first  lets cover all of the different models used by meteorologists, since there are so many to choose from.

Many different countries put out dedicated weather models.  The US has then North American Model abbreviated, “NAM”and the Global Forecast System “GFS”.  Canada produces the Canadian Model “CMC”, a Europe as a whole uses the European Model, “Euro”. Finally there are the independent models such as Accuweather’s Galileo.  All very different models that try to convey what their data is saying the weather will be.

So what makes for a good weather model?  In the realm of weather models, it’s all about resolution.  The more location data points the models uses the better the resolution and the clarity of what the model is predicting.  The internal computer system that runs the model is also a large factor.  This is where the US model fails.  For many years the US weather models were left unchanged, while the European Model continued to advance with technology.  This is why the Euro  out performs the NAM.  However the National Weather Service is addressing these issues, and plans on updating the US models in the near future.  So some day the United State might once again be on the top for weather forecasting.