Weather forecasts

Cyclone Gita forecasts delivered late - broadcaster says

Broadcasters in the territory normally get forecasts directly from the National Weather Service.

However, the protocol changes once the Emergency Operations Centre is activated, with all forecasts issued to radio and television stations from the centre.

Southseas Broadcasting general manager Joey Cummings said Gita forecasts issued in the morning often did not reach his station until the afternoon.

IBM's hourly weather reports will cover entire Earth

Currently in many African, Asian and South American countries, weather reports may be available only every six to 12 hours and only for broad patches of land up to 15km (9.3 miles) wide.

But IBM's new tool provides reports down to more specific, 3km-wide areas.

The company says it can even predict individual thunderstorms.

The tool, announced at the CES tech show in Las Vegas and launched in partnership with The Weather Channel, uses supercomputers to crunch data from hundreds of millions of sensors around the globe.