Nowcasting and innovation to the beat of Los40

At Meteoclim, WDNA's weather company, we know how important the task of generating and providing quality and accurate weather information to our customers can be. We are continuously working to improve our nowcasting forecasts. This method of forecasting, in which we specialise, consists of taking different sources of weather observation, such as weather radar data, and applying proprietary algorithms to generate an accurate forecast for up to 6 hours.

The algorithms developed at WDNA are based on the movement of existing precipitation. This means that from the actual observation of precipitation, we use proprietary methods to generate a field of movement of that precipitation to create an accurate forecast up to 6 hours. Until now, our method of generating nowcasting has been based on the observation provided by weather radar images, but through further research and development, we have been able to feed our short-term predictions by developing new observation sources. Using the electromagnetic signal emitted and received from mobile phone towers, we are able to considerably improve the accuracy and precision of nowcasting.

The nowcasting developed at WDNA is part of a Research and Development project through a Torres Quevedo grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Over time, this project has been complemented with other R&D grants. Investment in R&D is essential for the development of new technologies that enable both society and the business world to move forward together.

The success of the nowcasting stool has been proven on numerous occasions. A specific case of the good performance of our forecasting methods could be seen with the passing of an intense storm on 11/08/2020 in Cordoba. The meteorological situation was striking, as there were very unstable conditions that led to the formation of a very intense storm during the afternoon of that day, which crossed Cordoba airport. The WDNA nowcasting tool warned of the storm more than 1h30min in advance.

An intense thunderstorm crossed Cordoba airport on the afternoon of 11/08/2020. WDNA's nowcasting tool gave more than 1h30min warning of the storm. In this video you can see: radar nowcasting, precipitation accumulation in 2h based on nowcasting, storm nowcasting and areas that would be affected by the storm. Visualisation of our Smartweather platform.

The recorded observations quantified a total of 57.6 mm of accumulated precipitation from the storm. Our precipitation nowcasting calculated the total cumulative rainfall from this storm to be 55 mm. This striking fact did not go unnoticed. The local press reported on the event and the high degree of accuracy of WDNA's prediction. Through our Smartweather weather tracking and forecasting platform, we monitor any weather event of interest on a minute-by-minute basis. In addition to the integrated nowcasting tool, it offers a wide range of professional weather forecasting products.

We provide accurate weather forecasts for any type of outdoor sporting event. We are the main weather information manager for the Royal Spanish Triathlon Federation, as well as the official weather information provider for LaVuelta a España. In the words of Jorge García, General Director of the Royal Spanish Triathlon Federation:

"Thanks to MeteoClim, we were able to analyse complex decisions by having access to real data updated every ten minutes and with extreme precision."