Funding for weather and climate supercomputer

The government is investing £1.2 billion to develop a state-of-the-art supercomputer, which will be used to help more accurately predict storms, select the most suitable locations for flood defences and predict changes to the global climate.

The new supercomputer, to be managed by the Met Office, will also be used to help ensure communities can be better prepared for weather disruption, including more sophisticated rainfall predictions, helping the Environment Agency rapidly deploy mobile flood defences; better forecasting at airports so they can plan for potential disruption; and more detailed information for the energy sector to help them mitigate against potential energy blackouts and surges.

The new supercomputer will also strengthen the UK’s supercomputing and data technology capabilities, driving forward innovation and growing world-class skills across supercomputing, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Professor Penny Endersby, Met Office Chief Executive said: "This investment will ultimately provide earlier more accurate warning of severe weather, the information needed to build a more resilient world in a changing climate and help support the transition to a low carbon economy across the UK.

"It will help the UK to continue to lead the field in weather and climate science and services, working collaboratively to ensure that the benefits of our work help government, the public and industry make better decisions to stay safe and thrive."