Forecasts by PHONIAC

The first computer weather forecasts were made in 1950, using the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). The ENIAC forecasts led to operational numerical weather prediction within five years, and paved the way for the remarkable advances in weather prediction and climate modelling that have been made over the past half century. The basis for the forecasts was the barotropic vorticity equation (BVE). In the present study, we describe the solution of the BVE on a mobile phone (cell-phone), and repeat one of the ENIAC forecasts. We speculate on the possible applications of mobile phones for micro-scale numerical weather prediction.