In Vino Veritas: On Wine, Weather and Climate

From bud break to harvest, winemaking is a high-stakes game of weather intelligence, and AI could be a new tool that's helping vintners master it.

Author's note: The article below, which I originally wrote for weather.com in 2014, captures an exciting (and fun!) moment in my career.

I was hired by The Weather Channel Company (now The Weather Company) in 2011 to lead innovation in the use of weather analytics for our advertising business.

See: Weather Channel Ready For Battle With New Ad System

The Weather Channel has armed itself to drive interest in a new digital ad product. It’s enlisted a former Air Force meteorologist, who helped plan missions in Operation Desert Storm, to advise advertisers on optimal times to run ads as they look to take advantage of weather patterns to pump sales.

There was more on the line when Paul Walsh evaluated when conditions were ripe for the elite 101^st Airborne assault team to attack inside Iraq in his role as Chief of Weather Operations 20 years ago.

But, he says his work at the Weather Channel, which he joined this summer as vice president of weather analytics, isn’t dissimilar.

While weather tech…