If only this were an April fools story. The 'breakthrough' involves moving the accuracy of long term forecast from slightly better than 50-50 chance of accuracy to a 62%, when applied to 20 whole years of data.


Forecasters find new formula for long-range weather
British scientists are believed to have developed the world's best long-term weather forecasting model, a breakthrough that
By Padraic Flanagan
11:29PM BST 01 Apr 2014

Meteorologists believe they will finally be able to give accurate long-range weather predictions after British scientists developed the world’s best long-term forecasting model, it has emerged.

The breakthrough is expected to have a major impact on the economy, with power companies able to anticipate energy demands and hospitals better prepared for weather-related illnesses and accidents.

Until now, the difficulty of predicting the weather far into the future with any degree of accuracy has defeated even powerful supercomputers.

Experts claim they perform only slightly better than chance when it comes to predicting whether a winter will be mild, severe, freezing, snowy or stormy.

The latest British model, which simulates the climate on a more detailed scale, was shown to be 62 per cent accurate at giving a broadbrush prediction of winter conditions when it was tested on 20 years of retrospective data, the Times reports.