FORECASTING the weather is tricky, but there is a silver lining. Chaos theory
reveals when you can predict the weather with confidence—and when to give
up and go home.
D. J. Patil at the University of Maryland in College Park and a team that
includes James Yorke—who coined the term chaos theory—looked at
forecasting data from the US National Weather Service. The service uses computer
models of the world’s weather systems to create a range of different forecasts,
all based on tweaking temperature, wind, humidity and pressure to see the most
likely weather conditions for the next…
