Reflective Writing
By Michelle Naef
MET-1010-401-Sp15
This report is about how a new supercomputer can help provide more reliable and earlier
weather warnings. The article name is “Met Office says new supercomputer will provide more reliable
weather warnings.” The author name is Stuart Clark, and the article came from The Guardian news, the
Latest US news, world news, sports and opinions. The goal is to provide more accurate weather
disasters like flooding, strong winds, fog and heavy snow. It is claimed to be 13 times more powerful
than Met Office’s forecasting machine, due to preforming 16,000 trillion calculations a second, and one
of the most powerful computer in the world. While the first ones are expected by September 2015,
they will not be able to reach full capacity until 2017. This article sparked my interest because an
improvement in detecting disasters can be very important in helping warn people of a big storm coming
and help to evacuate said disaster.
Special types of computers are able to predict weather patterns through satellites that pick up
the required information to preview the weather for forecasters and news stations. If a rain/snowstorm
is coming, this helps people to prepare for such weather conditions, especially those who need to
walk/drive to their work destination. My dad watches the news regularly to know the weather
conditions because he is a truck driver. This information helps him to prepare for any storms that may
be coming. However, I do not pay much attention to the weather man. One day, my dad told me it
would snow tomorrow in the morning. I did not listen much to his words, but I found that what he said
was correct, and it was snowing a lot. The snowfall was so fast I was unable to drive to college. This
showed me that I should pay more attention to what weather conditions will be like, and that they can
affect anyone that is hit by them.