What exactly is a 'weather model'?

Jane's Weather offers a range of different weather models, which we combine into one forecast called the Jane's Weather Consensus.

But what actually is a weather model?

Weather observations from across the globe (from satellites, radars, airplanes, ocean buoys etc) go into a supercomputer, where extensive mathematical equations churn through all that data. After about 4-6 hours, they compute an answer. This answer is the weather forecast; a different one for every square on earth.

Each model uses their own mathematical equations, so the answer can differ from model to model. And each model has a different resolution of these squares. USA has one answer for every 28km square, CANADA has one for every 22km square, and AUSTRALIA has a higher resolution (and therefore takes longer to compute) of 12km.

Read more about how meteorologists make a weather forecast from these weather models.

In AEDT you can expect a new answer:

• from USA around 4am, 10am, 4pm and 10pm each day
• from CANADA around 5am and 5pm each day (it only runs twice)
• from AUSTRALIA around 7:30am, 12:30pm, 7:30pm, 12:30am (the 12:30am/pm run only updates the first three days, the remaining days are from the 7:30am/pm run - that's why you may see a big jump from time to time - that indicates that the guidance is changing) 

The Consensus forecast updates every time an individual model updates. 

Start by looking at the differences between each model for your favourite location(s). (Have you set them yet? Do that under Account Settings/Locations)