Many parts of the world that are most vulnerable to extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and flash flooding, are also the ones that legacy weather-forecasting systems overlook. With its constellation of 13 weather satellites, Tomorrow.io is bringing data to the areas that need it most—helping them accurately monitor weather that can change quickly.
“Before our constellation, 90% of the earth didn’t have real-time data to tell you if it’s raining or not,” says Shimon Elkabetz, cofounder and CEO of Tomorrow.io. “So how can you forecast?”
To gain a comprehensive picture of the weather, Tomorrow.io operates two types of satellites. Its original Pathfinder model uses advanced radar to collect granular precipitation data, detecting even faint drizzle and tiny particles of snow. Its newer Sounder model, first launched in 2024, can assess broad areas, collecting information about temperature, water vapor, and precipitation. Both satellites can penetrate through clouds to gather data.
Though Sounder has a price tag of less than $10 million, its data is comparable to that of advanced satellites that can cost hundreds of millions to deploy. That’s enabled Tomorrow.io to launch enough satellites to develop a “weather intelligence” platform that can forecast the trajectory and intensity of cyclones, track thunderstorm activity, and assess flood risk on a hyperlocal basis around the globe. The U.S. Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation, a government-supported research center, has found that Tomorrow.io data significantly improves forecast accuracy for temperature, water vapor, and wind across all atmospheric levels and diverse regions, including the tropics.
Tomorrow.io has a partnership with NOAA that includes the National Hurricane Center and is helping countries such as Thailand secure cutting-edge weather services with the flip of a switch. “Every developing country that has no infrastructure can get a solution this afternoon,” Elkabetz says. “It’s a real revolution of bringing modern weather-resiliency infrastructure everywhere on Earth.”
The company is now focused on speed. After rounding out its constellation with two additional Sounder satellites in January, Tomorrow.io can scan any point on Earth once an hour—a game changer for keeping an eye on rapidly intensifying storms. It’s a critical expansion that could help Tomorrow.io offer better products for its government and enterprise customers, the latter of which include insurance, logistics, and aviation companies. (In July, Tomorrow.io signed a deal with Palantir to integrate its weather data and AI forecasts into Palantir’s platforms for private sector and government users.)
For its business customers, Tomorrow.io uses AI to transform its raw weather data into hyperlocal industry- and business-specific action plans. “Our product keeps getting more and more agentic,” says Elkabetz. “If your job is to dispatch [flights] for an airline, the agent will analyze which flight numbers are expected to be diverted so you can delay or cancel the flight ahead of time. Or, the agent might tell you to call more drivers because you’re going to need to do deicing.”
For an insurance company, Tomorrow.io’s agent might analyze policy holders’ locations and send an alert for customers to put their cars in the garage because hail is coming—in a way that encourages action. “It’s not just ‘hail is coming,’” says Elkabetz. “People don’t listen to daily warnings. They listen when you tell them, ‘Hey, your car is going to hit a weather event in 30 minutes. Why don’t you pull over or get to shelter?’”