Swedish researchers developing new weather forecast model

STOCKHOLM, Aug. 16  — Researchers at Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology are developing a method to forecast the weather months ahead of time, with the aim of helping farmers to streamline their work, local media reported on Thursday.
With the use of advanced mathematical algorithms, artificial intelligence and 20 years of weather data from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), the new model will help predict weather scenarios a couple of months ahead of time and should also be able to specify which specific crops should be watered and when. The aim is to maximize farmers’ crop yields and reduce water use, researcher Pietro Campana told Swedish Television on Thursday.
Ulf Ivarsson, whose farm is located in Ramdala in southern Sweden and who was negatively affected by Sweden’s unusually warm and dry summer, said unreliable weather forecasts are farmers’ “biggest dilemma”.
“If we believe there will be rain next week, we might not water the crops that much but then if the rain doesn’t come in the end, the crops may dry out. So I really hope to get to test this,” Ivarsson said of the new model.
Ivarsson lost around 40 percent of his crops this summer but had counted on a full yield and so lay down fertilizers accordingly. “First we had a very wet spring and then we thought it wouldn’t dry out until midsummer. But then the drought came in May already and the plants’ roots did not settle,” Ivarsson said.
The association Blekinge Arkipelag, which promotes sustainable growth in the biosphere, supports the Royal Institute of Technology researchers and hope to be able to test their model in the Blekinge region in southern Sweden within two years’ time.
“We are working to find solutions to global problems at the local level and Pietro’s research caught our interest,” said Mattias Holmquist, biosphere coordinator at Blekinge Arkipelag. “If we would be able to apply it here it would be a great asset, financially for farmers and also nationally from the point of view of achieving sustainable energy consumption and it would be good for the environment as it reduces the risk of over-fertilization,” said Holmquist. – XINHUA