🌦️ Spotlight on Weather Forecasting: Beyond Weather
Say goodbye to uncertainty in long-range weather forecasts. Beyond Weather is tackling the so-called “prediction desert” by delivering actionable, weeks-ahead insights powered by AI and climate science. Whether you’re managing a farm, a city, or an energy grid, early warnings can change everything.
🔍 Why Beyond Weather matters
- Predicts extreme weather events months in advance, giving organisations time to act
- Fills the gap between short-term forecasts and long-range climate models
- Built for decision-makers: energy companies, NGOs, farmers, and city planners
- Uses AI to translate weather data into real-world impact (not just numbers, but what it means)
🧠 Meet the Team
Spun out of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the founding team at Beyond Weather includes Steven van den Tol, Jannes van Ingen, Sem Vijverberg, and Dim Coumou. Together, they bring deep scientific expertise into the startup world. Steven has played a key role in shaping a team culture where shared values and regular feedback are part of the foundation. This deliberate approach helps turn cutting-edge research into a focused and mission-driven company.
Joining a startup like Beyond Weather means contributing to the culture of the company. What kind of team environment do you as a co-founder thrive in, and how do you see yourself contributing to a positive and productive culture in a growing company spun out of academic research?
We believe good company culture is extremely important, especially in the early stages. Believes shape values, values shape behaviour, behaviour shapes culture and culture shapes performance. We hold a strong belief that work shouldn’t always be crazy and that people only thrive when they feel supported and valued. That feeling translates into healthy culture, which will make a better team and higher performance. As an academic spin-off we will in a way always stay true to our academic roots, but we have also created our own culture on top of that. Steven has been one of the most influential people in deliberately shaping company culture by setting up repeated processes of feedback within the founding team and for new hires.
Beyond Weather gives specific forecasts for industries like energy and commodities. How would you make complex scientific data easy for these clients to understand and use?
The beauty of weather is that every single human on earth experiences it and there is no way around it. That already makes it quite understandable for most people we work with. Still, weather can indeed be a complex phenomenon that needs further explanation. In that case, it’s the same as in every other field of work: take a customer point-of-view to explain your own product. Often times it’s not about knowing what the weather will be, but about what the weather will do. Making that translation for the customer can be highly valuable.
Beyond Weather helps predict extreme weather months ahead, filling a “prediction desert.” How would you explain, in simple terms, how this early warning helps people like farmers, city planners, or aid groups save money, resources, and even lives?
The prediction desert is a beautiful storyline that visualises a gap in weather forecast accuracy. On the short-range end of the forecasting horizon – up to 14 days – weather forecasting is quite accurate. Over the last decades, tremendous steps have been made to increase weather forecasting here. On the other far end, the realm of climate projections – years to decades ahead – also have quite accurate predictions based on CO2 content in the atmosphere. Right in between those is where the prediction desert lives. Beyond two weeks ahead, weather forecast accuracy has always been low. The resulting weather insecurity has always been a big problem for many economic sectors, because it decreases the power to anticipate. Luckily, with the power of AI, new opportunities arise to beat this forecasting horizon. We believe this oasis in the prediction desert is the early warning many people need for their business; a farmer who tries to protect his harvest, energy companies that need to optimise renewable energy, NGOs that need to allocate help in areas of the world, water management bodies that anticipate droughts.
Learn more about their journey & mission