The Week Ahead: Better-educated guesses

Weather forecasts in the Arctic aren't as accurate as those further south. But there are gathering incentives to change that.

If you knew earlier in the week what the weather was going to be like today, it’s likely because you had consulted a weather forecast. At lower latitudes, forecasts of this sort, telling us (more or less) what the weather will probably be like days in advance, are taken for granted. Head further north, however, and the amount of time in advance meteorologists can make accurate forecasts declines rapidly.