BOSTON, MA – August 13, 2025 – Tomorrow.io, the world’s leading Resilience Platform™, today announced the launch of Build Tomorrow’s Frontier Challenge, a global call-to-action to help close one of the most persistent gaps in hurricane forecasting: predicting changes in storm intensity.
While track forecasts have improved by over 70 percent since 1990, intensity forecasts have advanced by only about 10 percent, according to the National Hurricane Center. This lag leaves communities exposed to sudden, severe impacts. Compounding the challenge is that most AI weather models today struggle with intensity forecasting, primarily due to the historical training data they rely on cannot capture these changes with sufficient accuracy.
Even more impactful is an extreme form of intensification, known as rapid intensification, a phenomenon where hurricanes explosively strengthen in less than a day, often catching entire communities off guard. According to NOAA, nearly 70 percent of all U.S. billion-dollar hurricane disasters now involve rapid intensification, resulting in more than $50 billion in damage over the past decade.
2023’s Hurricane Otis offers a stark example of this escalating threat. Initially forecast to strike Acapulco, Mexico as a tropical storm (< 74 mph), Otis instead made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, its winds skyrocketing from 70 to 165 mph in under 24 hours. The result was catastrophic: widespread devastation, with official fatalities reaching 52 and local counts surpassing 350.
By advancing the science behind hurricane forecasting – including the toughest scenarios like rapid intensification – we can help ensure NOAA and other agencies have the information they need to issue earlier and more accurate warnings,” said Shimon Elkabetz, CEO and co-founder of Tomorrow.io. “Improving intensity forecasting is critical, and by opening access to next-generation satellite data, we’re empowering the world’s brightest minds to drive meaningful progress.
Build Tomorrow Challenge 1 calls on AI engineers, scientists, developers, and students to create models that can improve prediction of hurricane intensification, giving communities and decision-makers more time to act before disaster strikes. Participants will gain exclusive access to Tomorrow.io’s proprietary satellite constellation data, including high-resolution atmospheric observations previously unavailable to the public.
“Improving storm intensity forecasts is not only a scientific challenge – it’s a national security priority,” said Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, PhD, US Navy (ret), former acting administrator of NOAA and advisor to Tomorrow.io. “Our coastal communities face rising threats with limited warning, and legacy models aren’t keeping pace. This challenge represents a powerful opportunity to combine private-sector innovation with next-generation data to deliver breakthroughs the world urgently needs.”
This is the first in a series of global competitions designed to accelerate innovation in weather and climate resilience.
Participants can sign up now at www.buildtomorrow.io to receive early updates and challenge details as they’re released.
About Tomorrow.io
Selected by TIME Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Companies in the World, Tomorrow.io is the world’s leading Resilience Platform™. Combining next-generation space technology, advanced generative AI, and proprietary weather modeling, Tomorrow.io delivers unmatched forecasting and decision-making capabilities. Trusted by six of the top ten Fortune 500 companies, Tomorrow.io empowers organizations to proactively manage weather-related risks, opportunities, and enhance operational efficiency. From cutting-edge weather intelligence to real-time early warning systems, Tomorrow.io enables predictive, impact-based action for a safer, more resilient future. Learn more at Tomorrow.io.
