Met Office signs multimillion-pound contract with Microsoft to build 'UK's most powerful supercomputer'

Supercomputer will be twice as powerful as any other in the UK, Microsoft claims

The Met Office has signed a multimillion-pound deal with Microsoft to build the world's most advanced weather forecasting supercomputer.

Set to be up and running by the summer of 2020, the new weather and climate forecasting supercomputer will be among the top 25 most powerful supercomputers in the world and will be twice as powerful as any other in the UK.

The data it generates will provide more accurate severe weather warnings in the UK including increasingly extreme storms, floods and snow.

Microsoft's supercomputing as-a-service offer will integrate with HPE's Cray supercomputers and Azure cloud technologies and be provided through an end-to-end managed service.

The UK government pledged in February 2020 that it would commit £1.2bn in funding to develop the supercomputer.

The supercomputer's modelling will help inform Government policy as part of the UK's fight against climate change and its efforts to reach net zero by 2050.

Microsoft promises the supercomputer will be among the world's most environmentally sustainable and will be powered 100 per cent through renewable energy.

Jenny Endersby, chief executive of the Met Office, said: "We are delighted to be working in collaboration with Microsoft to deliver our next supercomputing capability. Working together, we will provide the highest quality weather and climate datasets and ever more accurate forecasts that enable decisions to allow people to stay safe and thrive. This will be a unique capability that will keep not just the Met Office but the UK at the forefront of environmental modelling and high-performance computing.

"This investment by the UK government is a great vote of confidence in the Met Office's world leading status as a provider of weather and climate science and services, as well as in our national commitment to build a more resilient world in a changing climate, helping build back greener across the UK and beyond."

"The new supercomputer, backed by a billion-pound UK government investment, will act as a catalyst for unlocking new skills, technologies and jobs right across our economy - from data scientists to AI experts - all as part of our efforts to build back better and create a cleaner future," added business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng in a statement.