Why can’t the weather be predicted with 100% accuracy?
Greetings from your friendly neighborhood meteorologist: The short answer is chaos. The weather is physics, and the only way you can perfectly predict physical outcomes is if you can be sure of practically everything going INTO them. For example, the rise and set of the sun every day.
The Short Answer
Greetings from your friendly neighborhood meteorologist: The short answer is chaos. The weather is physics, and the only way you can perfectly predict physical outcomes is if you can be sure of practically everything going INTO them. For example, the rise and set of the sun every day. We know what dictates that, and we know that it's not changing hardly at all. So, simple math means we can tell exactly when it'll come up tomorrow. The weather, though, is affected by a lot more stuff. It's affected by a certain hot spot on the ground, or a volcano erupting, or a jet taking a certain path through the sky. Most of those things have tiny tiny impacts, but they add up, and then that changes the weather a few seconds from now, which changes the weather a few seconds after THAT, and so on. Too many of the things that drive the weather are unpredictable (how many cars will drive on this bridge today), so the weather itself is unpredictable more than a couple of days in advance.
Analysis
Key Concepts: Weather, know, it's
This explanation focuses on weather, know, it's and spans 179 words across 9 sentences. At 152% above the average Nature explanation (71 words), this is one of the more thorough answers in this category, reflecting the complexity of the underlying question.
What This Answer Covers
The explanation opens with: “Greetings from your friendly neighborhood meteorologist: The short answer is chaos.” It then elaborates by presenting a contrasting perspective, ultimately building toward a complete picture across 9 connected points.
How This Compares in Nature
Ranked #1 of 500 Nature questions by answer depth (top 1%). This places it in the comprehensive tier — the top quarter of most thoroughly answered questions. Questions at this depth typically involve multi-faceted topics requiring nuanced explanation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a simple explanation for why the weather be predicted with 100% accuracy?
Greetings from your friendly neighborhood meteorologist: The short answer is chaos. The weather is physics, and the only way you can perfectly predict physical outcomes is if you can be sure of practically everything going INTO them. For example,…
How detailed is this explanation compared to similar Nature questions?
This is one of the most thorough answer at 179 words, ranked #1 of 500 Nature questions by depth. The key concepts covered are weather, know, it's.
What approach does this answer take to explain the weather be predicted with 100% accuracy?
The explanation uses concrete examples and contrasting perspectives across 179 words. It is categorized under Nature and addresses the question through 2 analytical lenses.