Article: Scientists seek better forecasting by targeting `chaos hot spots'.(The Dallas Morning News)

Amid chaos, local weather forecasting may improve.

Understanding the chaos that dominates the atmosphere and drives the weather may help researchers determine what makes a good forecast go bad, says DJ Patil, a member of a team of scientists working on the problem.

The scientists believe they have developed a method to identify what they call "chaos hot spots" in the atmosphere. These are areas where very small disturbances are most likely to amplify quickly into larger changes in the weather. A popular metaphor for this phenomenon, inspired by the father of modern chaos theory, Edward Lorenz, is a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil setting off a ...

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