Typhoon is of utmost concern at this time of year for people who want to go out in Japan. I'm one of them actually, so this week, I have been watching a route of a typhoon approaching Japan this weekend. I have a feeling that prediction accuracy is poorer than before, when I saw that a 70% probability circle of center position forecast was unbelievably large a few days ago.
Coronavirus lower Weather Forecast accuracy
I didn't think there were any relationship between Coronavirus pandemic and weather forecast. My understanding was, -Many satellites staying in space gather all information necessary from the earth to predict the routes of the typhoons. Of course Coronavirus can't reach the satellites in space and the satellites are operated by automated system.-
However it definitely makes me think that the probability circle of typhoons got bigger than before, which means the prediction accuracy got also poorer. I found news (sorry in Japanese) which provides an answer to my question. Weather forecast uses the data from many airplanes that gather meteorological data during their usual operation. The decrease in the number of airplanes influences the amount of meteorological data.
Finally, the current typhoon which was predicted to be coming seems like making a turn and going back to the direction where it came from. Is it because of global warming? In recent years, I think, I have been seeing this type of typhoon that moves strangely. I was actually hoping the lowered human activity by Corona-pandemic might slow the global warming a bit, perhaps?
