Axios

Artificial intelligence-based computer models are starting to augment standard, physics-based tools used to predict the weather and climate change. In the next few weeks, they face real-world tests with high stakes.

Driving the news: With a snowstorm targeting the Northeast this weekend — followed next week by an intense Midwest blizzard, then a major U.S. Arctic outbreak — computer model skill will be a major topic in the minds of weather and climate scientists. Many of them are not yet sold on the AI model's accuracy.

Why it matters: The adoption of AI in meteorology and climate science is likely to be one of the most game-changing developments for these fields since the dawn of numerical modeling.