Meet the new weathermen, Dogwood and Cactus

Nothing can snarl a logistics and transportation network like an extreme weather event, whether it’s a hurricane, flood, or snowstorm. And if recent climate change patterns hold true, that challenge will only become more severe in coming years. 

Nobody can change the weather, but the U.S. government in June unveiled two new tools that could help it develop more accurate forecasts.

Those secret weapons are a pair of room-sized supercomputers that represent a significant upgrade to the computing capacity, storage space, and data-transfer speed of the nation’s Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System. The twin Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Cray supercomputers, called Dogwood and Cactus, are named after the flora native to their geographic locations of Manassas, Virginia, and Phoenix, Arizona, respectively. 

Each supercomputer operates at a speed of 12.1 petaflops, three times faster than the system previously used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That blinding speed makes the twin machines the 49th and 50th fastest computers in the world, according to contractor General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), which designed and maintains the units.

“This is a big day for NOAA and the state of weather forecasting,” Ken Graham, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service, said in a release. “Researchers are developing new ensemble-based forecast models at record speed, and now we have the computing power needed to implement many of these substantial advancements to improve weather and climate prediction.”

Looking ahead, Dogwood and Cactus will allow NOAA to upgrade to the U.S. Global Forecast System (GFS) this fall and launch a new hurricane forecast model called the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS) in 2023.