On the Predictive Skill of Artificial Intelligence-based Weather Models for Extreme Events using Uncertainty Quantification

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Almeida, Rodrigo, Otero, Noelia, Fernández-Torres, Miguel-Ángel, Ma, Jackie
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Almeida, Rodrigo
Otero, Noelia
Fernández-Torres, Miguel-Ángel
Ma, Jackie
author_facet Almeida, Rodrigo
Otero, Noelia
Fernández-Torres, Miguel-Ángel
Ma, Jackie
contents Accurate prediction of extreme weather events remains a major challenge for artificial intelligence-based weather prediction systems. While deterministic models such as FuXi, GraphCast, and SFNO have achieved competitive forecast skill relative to numerical weather prediction, their ability to represent uncertainty and capture extremes is still limited. This study investigates how state-of-the-art deterministic artificial intelligence-based models respond to initial-condition perturbations and evaluates the resulting ensembles in forecasting extremes. Using four perturbation strategies (Gaussian, Perlin noise, Hemispheric Centered Bred Vectors, and Huge Ensembles), we generate 50 member ensembles for the August 2022 Pakistan floods and China heatwave, and complement these case studies with a global threshold-based evaluation. Ensemble skill is assessed against ERA5 and compared with IFS ENS and the AIFS ENS probabilistic model using deterministic and probabilistic metrics. Results show that simpler perturbations like Gaussian and Perlin noise produce similarly realistic ensemble spread and probabilistic skill as flow-based approaches like HCBV and HENS, narrowing but not closing the performance gap with numerical weather prediction ensembles, or native probabilistic models which retain the highest probabilistic skill across variables. Model choice is the dominant factor for ensemble performance, not perturbation method. Across variables, models capture temperature extremes more effectively than precipitation. These findings demonstrate that simple input perturbations can extend deterministic models toward probabilistic forecasting in hardware-constrained settings, supporting artificial intelligence-driven early warning systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_17176
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the Predictive Skill of Artificial Intelligence-based Weather Models for Extreme Events using Uncertainty Quantification
Almeida, Rodrigo
Otero, Noelia
Fernández-Torres, Miguel-Ángel
Ma, Jackie
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Machine Learning
Accurate prediction of extreme weather events remains a major challenge for artificial intelligence-based weather prediction systems. While deterministic models such as FuXi, GraphCast, and SFNO have achieved competitive forecast skill relative to numerical weather prediction, their ability to represent uncertainty and capture extremes is still limited. This study investigates how state-of-the-art deterministic artificial intelligence-based models respond to initial-condition perturbations and evaluates the resulting ensembles in forecasting extremes. Using four perturbation strategies (Gaussian, Perlin noise, Hemispheric Centered Bred Vectors, and Huge Ensembles), we generate 50 member ensembles for the August 2022 Pakistan floods and China heatwave, and complement these case studies with a global threshold-based evaluation. Ensemble skill is assessed against ERA5 and compared with IFS ENS and the AIFS ENS probabilistic model using deterministic and probabilistic metrics. Results show that simpler perturbations like Gaussian and Perlin noise produce similarly realistic ensemble spread and probabilistic skill as flow-based approaches like HCBV and HENS, narrowing but not closing the performance gap with numerical weather prediction ensembles, or native probabilistic models which retain the highest probabilistic skill across variables. Model choice is the dominant factor for ensemble performance, not perturbation method. Across variables, models capture temperature extremes more effectively than precipitation. These findings demonstrate that simple input perturbations can extend deterministic models toward probabilistic forecasting in hardware-constrained settings, supporting artificial intelligence-driven early warning systems.
title On the Predictive Skill of Artificial Intelligence-based Weather Models for Extreme Events using Uncertainty Quantification
topic Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.17176