Five years ago, The Weather Channel announced a new immersive weather presentation tool, Powered by Unreal Enginewhich uses mixed reality to better depict major weather events. Since then it has been frequently used on TWC for weather reports and storm warnings, although it is most effective (and memorable) when describing severe weather, e.g. Show viewers how wildfires spread. Now, the technology is being used again to demonstrate the potential storm surge of Hurricane Milton, one of the largest storms ever recorded that is set to make landfall in Florida later today (October 8), and it’s pretty scary .
Meteorologist Stephanie Abrams used The Weather Channel’s FloodFX simulation to show how severe the storm surge from the incoming hurricane could be in a video shared to X (formerly Twitter) earlier today. The mixed-reality set-up is very effective: Abrams is standing in a completely virtual space, and the camera zooms out to make it look like she’s standing on a Florida street, while a smaller, slimmer figure appears behind her. Traditional weather screen showing storm surge warning and watch.
“We could see record surges of over nine feet,” Abrams explained. “I can use this simulation to show you what Tampa actually looks like.” The screen disappears and water pours in, filling the fictional Florida neighborhood behind her. “At three feet above the normally dry ground, the water was already life-threatening. It was too late to evacuate. Water that high would make you unsteady, float your car, and make it impossible to drive. The first floors of homes and businesses were covered in water. It was flooded.
In the background, palm trees sway in the wind and a car looks suspiciously levitating. The water was up to Abrams’s waist. “Unfortunately, the water levels are expected to rise much higher. At six feet, higher than most people are, vehicles are swept away and buildings start to fail – just look at this. Cars behind are completely off The ground, shaking like an apple in a storm surge, but she said nine feet, remember?
“The scary thing is, some areas could see surges of 10 to 15 feet,” Abrams said, as the view behind her rose to 9 feet. “It’s going to take nine of us and see what it does. At this level, the first floor of the building is completely submerged and when the water rises this high, almost no place is safe. We want everyone to know they are Evacuate areas, listen to local officials, and evacuate when ordered to do so.
In the aforementioned announcement, Unreal details how it’s partnering with The Weather Channel to leverage real-time weather data for a mixed reality demo, writing:
The studio’s pipeline uses a traditional broadcast setup, complete with cameras and a green screen setup, running in parallel with Zero Density reality enginea real-time broadcast compositing system based on Unreal Engine, and reality keyerZero Density says it’s the world’s first and only real-time Image-based keyer Working on the GPU… VFX artists create effects like rain, snow, fire and water in Unreal Engine Niagara visual effects system. Animation is produced by sequencer Multi-track non-linear editor. Real-time weather data imported through the API is used to drive 3D charts and graphs, even causing rain or the sun to go behind clouds.
Such simulations are critical to correctly describing how dangerous hurricanes and their subsequent storm surges are, especially as the latest worrying trends involve Conspiracy theorists believe hurricanes were created by weather machines to influence electionsa concept currently being perpetuated by American representatives (also a piece of shit) Marjorie Taylor Greene on X (formerly Twitter). With disinformation spreading, it’s important that people know exactly what happens when a hurricane as powerful as Milton hits, and it’s interesting to see how Unreal Engine helps demonstrate this.
my city Unreal Engine and The Weather Channel have been contacted for comment.
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