New weather technology could make delivering pizza with drones easier
By
Lauren Fox, AccuWeather staff writer
Forecasting tools are getting so sophisticated that they can provide modeling between buildings to the level of detail that past forecasts provided between cities.
New weather forecasting technology, along with some drones, may be the key to a new system for food and package deliveries.
Small-scale weather forecasts used to be impossible until scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) created a new model called "FastEddy" in 2021 that works to deliver weather forecasts for extremely specific locations.
FastEddy, which is a high-resolution computer model, is capable of delivering forecasts that can be for areas as specific as an individual street. The model can also determine how wind will flow between buildings in a city.
In this Oct. 2017 photo, a Flirtey, Nev., delivery drone demonstrates the delivery of a defibrillator for cardiac arrest patients in Reno. The city of Reno and Flirtey confirmed Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018, the first successful deliveries by multiple drones steered by a single operator under a federal program fast-tracking regulatory approvals for drone delivery nationwide. (City of Flirtey via AP)
"FastEddy is capable of...predicting wind speed distribution among two nearby streets the same way another model could tell you the difference in the weather or winds in between Boulder and Denver," Dr. Domingo Munoz-Esparza, an NCAR scientist from Boulder, Colorado, told AccuWeather.
The weather forecasting available through this model will allow delivery companies and restaurants to be aware of small-scale weather events to determine if they will be able to send out food deliveries and packages through the use of drones or UAV's, which are much more susceptible to small scale weather events than a delivery driver would be.
A DPD Geopost prototype drone flies, carrying a parcel flies during a test flight in Pourrieres, southern France, June 23, 2015. GeoPost, a package delivery subsidiary of LaPoste, is set to launch a program that will see parcels delivered by drones. The GeoDrone completed its first successful automated flight last September. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)
The technology, according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Tony Laubach, would be most useful for deliveries in urban areas, where drone use for delivery services is more common. Prior forecasting models have not provided specific enough details to aid in drone deliveries like FastEddy has.
Despite the new models providing helpful details, Laubach said drones are very difficult to navigate even with agreeable weather, and delivering food like a pizza via a drone rather than a delivery driver can cause the food to cool down by the time it's delivered in the winter. Regardless, Laubach said he believes this forecasting model has many uses and drone deliveries are just "scratching the surface."
"A lot of uses for this model to come I think," he said.
Reporting by Tony Laubach
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News / Business
New weather technology could make delivering pizza with drones easier
By Lauren Fox, AccuWeather staff writer
Forecasting tools are getting so sophisticated that they can provide modeling between buildings to the level of detail that past forecasts provided between cities.
New weather forecasting technology, along with some drones, may be the key to a new system for food and package deliveries.
Small-scale weather forecasts used to be impossible until scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) created a new model called "FastEddy" in 2021 that works to deliver weather forecasts for extremely specific locations.
FastEddy, which is a high-resolution computer model, is capable of delivering forecasts that can be for areas as specific as an individual street. The model can also determine how wind will flow between buildings in a city.
In this Oct. 2017 photo, a Flirtey, Nev., delivery drone demonstrates the delivery of a defibrillator for cardiac arrest patients in Reno. The city of Reno and Flirtey confirmed Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018, the first successful deliveries by multiple drones steered by a single operator under a federal program fast-tracking regulatory approvals for drone delivery nationwide. (City of Flirtey via AP)
"FastEddy is capable of...predicting wind speed distribution among two nearby streets the same way another model could tell you the difference in the weather or winds in between Boulder and Denver," Dr. Domingo Munoz-Esparza, an NCAR scientist from Boulder, Colorado, told AccuWeather.
The weather forecasting available through this model will allow delivery companies and restaurants to be aware of small-scale weather events to determine if they will be able to send out food deliveries and packages through the use of drones or UAV's, which are much more susceptible to small scale weather events than a delivery driver would be.
A DPD Geopost prototype drone flies, carrying a parcel flies during a test flight in Pourrieres, southern France, June 23, 2015. GeoPost, a package delivery subsidiary of LaPoste, is set to launch a program that will see parcels delivered by drones. The GeoDrone completed its first successful automated flight last September. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)
The technology, according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Tony Laubach, would be most useful for deliveries in urban areas, where drone use for delivery services is more common. Prior forecasting models have not provided specific enough details to aid in drone deliveries like FastEddy has.
Despite the new models providing helpful details, Laubach said drones are very difficult to navigate even with agreeable weather, and delivering food like a pizza via a drone rather than a delivery driver can cause the food to cool down by the time it's delivered in the winter. Regardless, Laubach said he believes this forecasting model has many uses and drone deliveries are just "scratching the surface."
"A lot of uses for this model to come I think," he said.
Reporting by Tony Laubach
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For the latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, DIRECTVstream, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeatherNOW is streaming on Roku and XUMO.
Report a Typo