Five years ago, The Weather Channel announced a new, immersive weather presentation tool: Powered by Unreal Enginethat uses mixed reality to better represent major weather events. Since then, it has been used regularly on TWC for weather reports and storm warnings, although it is most effective (and memorable) when it comes to things like severe weather Viewers are shown how forest fires spread. Today, this technology is being used again to demonstrate the potential storm surge of Hurricane Milton, one of the largest storms in history, which is set to hit Florida today, October 8th – and it’s terrifying.
Using the Weather Channel’s FloodFX simulation, meteorologist Stephanie Abrams showed just how bad the storm surge from the approaching hurricane could be in a clip shared on X (formerly Twitter) today. The mixed reality setup is shockingly effective: Abrams stands in a completely virtual space, the camera zooms out to give the impression she’s standing on a Florida street, while a smaller, more traditional weather screen appears behind her, showing the Storm surge watches and warnings display watches.
“We saw a record-breaking rise of over nine feet,” Abrams explains. “And I can use this simulation to show you what Tampa will actually look like.” The screen disappears and water rushes in, filling the fictional Florida block behind her. “At a height of one meter above normally dry ground, water is already life-threatening. It’s too late to evacuate. Water this high can knock you over, float cars and make driving impossible. The first floors of houses and shops are flooded.”
In the background, palm trees blow in the wind and a car looks suspiciously buoyant. The water comes up to Abrams’ waist. “Unfortunately, it is expected that the water will rise even higher. At a height of 6 feet, more than the height of most people, vehicles are swept away, structures begin to fail – look at that.” The cars behind them lift completely off the ground and rock like apples in the storm surge. But she said nine feet, remember?
“The scary thing is that in some areas we could see surges of 10 to 15 feet,” Abrams says as the image behind her rises to 9 feet. “That brings us up to nine, and look what it does. At this level, the first floors of buildings are completely flooded and there are few places that are safe when the water rises that high. We want everyone to know their evacuation zones, listen to local officials and evacuate when told to.”
In the aforementioned announcement, Unreal explained how it is working with The Weather Channel to leverage live weather data for these mixed reality presentations, writing:
The studio’s pipeline includes a traditional broadcast setup with cameras and a green screen set running parallel to Zero Density Reality Machinea real-time broadcast compositing system based on the Unreal Engine, and Reality keywhich, according to Zero Density, is the world’s first and only real-time device Image based keyer This works on the GPU. VFX artists create effects such as rain, snow, fire and water in Unreal Engine Niagara VFX System. Animations are controlled by sequencer Multi-track non-linear editor. Live weather data imported via the API is used to create 3D charts and graphs and even make rain fall or the sun disappear behind a cloud.
This type of simulation is critical to accurately representing how dangerous hurricanes and the resulting storm surges can be – especially when it comes to the latest worrying trend Conspiracy theorists believe hurricanes are invented by weather machines to influence electionsa notion currently perpetuated by the US representative (and a piece of shit). Marjorie Taylor Greene on X (formerly Twitter). Given the amount of disinformation being spread, it’s important that people know exactly what can happen when a hurricane as powerful as Milton hits, and it’s fascinating to see how Unreal Engine can help clarify this .
My city has reached out to both Unreal Engine and The Weather Channel for comment.
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