Implications for mortality of future weather forecast improvements

New paper in PNAS, joint with the wonderful Sustainable Development PhD student Stephan Thies as well as the usual suspects on my weather forecast work (Derek, Laura, Manuel). Headline findings: More accurate weather forecasts save lives, especially during extreme heat. Continued improvements in short-range temperature forecasts could reduce heat-related mortality in the U.S. by ~20% by the end of the century. That would offset nearly all of the increase in deaths under moderate climate change. But this is also “running to stay in place”: without climate change, these same improvements would lead to substantial declines in heat-related mortality. Surveyed operational meteorologists expect forecasts to keep improving, and realizing those improvements will require sustained investment in weather data and model development (including AI models).