Google has launched a product called Nowcasting in its search engine, using artificial intelligence to offer “highly localised and immediate weather updates”.

The internet search giant said on Wednesday that Nowcasting addresses a “critical need for accurate and timely information in regions often impacted by unpredictable weather patterns”.

“This initiative is particularly significant for Africa, where traditional weather forecasting can be challenging due to limited infrastructure and data availability,” Google said in a statement. “Google’s nowcasting uses satellite imagery and AI to deliver real-time, minute-by-minute predictions.

“The forecasts are made possible through advancements in Google Research’s AI-powered nowcasting model MetNet, which uses satellite data and ground observations to produce state-of-the-art precipitation forecasts in data-sparse regions of the world. Google’s technology can predict global precipitation with high accuracy within a 5km radius every 15 minutes for the next 12 hours,” the company said.

A critical component for weather forecasts is dense ground radar, which is not available for most the world. “The need for new approaches and better weather forecasts is especially pronounced in Africa, where ground observations are limited and global weather models tend to exhibit low skill. For example, North America has 291 radar facilities to track weather, while Africa has 37,” it said.

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“To scale nowcasting globally, our research teams came up with a new approach using globally available satellite observations in our nowcasting models. Using AI and satellite observations, the model was able to fill in the gaps, even in areas where radar was unavailable, overcoming previous limitations in data sparse regions. It is also our first model to directly incorporate observations from a multitude of satellites.”