Inequality in Weather Forecasts Around the World, with Jeff Shrader

This week, host Margaret Walls investigates the world of weather forecasting with Jeffrey Shrader, an associate professor at Columbia University whose recent research examines inequalities in forecast accuracy among countries across the globe. While the accuracy of weather forecasts has improved steadily over the past few decades, low-income countries experience notably less reliability in their local and regional weather predictions. Shrader explains how factors such as topography and proximity to the tropics impact the ability to get a read on the weather, while lack of investment in weather-observing infrastructure exacerbates such inequalities. In the course of breaking down his findings, Shrader gives an overview of the public-private partnership behind US weather forecasting (including how the context and outcomes may be poised to shift with recent policy proposals) as well as the changes that national and global leaders can implement to improve the complex weather forecasting system.

References and recommendations:

“Global Inequalities in Weather Forecasts” by Manuel Linsenmeier and Jeffrey Shrader; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-77630-w

“Weather Forecasts Become More Important for Reducing Mortality as the Climate Warms” by Jeffrey G. Shrader, Stephan Thies, Laura Bakkensen, Manuel Linsenmeier, and Derek Lemoine; https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2523372123

“On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets” by Sanford J. Grossman and Joseph E. Stiglitz; https://www.jstor.org/stable/1805228

“Princess Mononoke” film; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke

“All the World” by Liz Garton Scanlon; https://parents.simonandschuster.com/9781481431217

“Balanced Weather” blog from Alan Gerard; https://balancedweather.com/author/wxinms1/

“Balanced Weather” substack from Alan Gerard; https://substack.com/@balancedweather

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