The hi-tech umbrella to protect yourself from extreme weather events

"Our unique position on the national scene is our ability to provide our clients, companies, and institutions with historical and forecast data on weather events for Italy, accurate to within one square kilometer." Weather Data Scientist Tullio Degiacomi explains the role of Hypermeteo, a company located within Progetto Manifattura, Trentino Sviluppo's green hub in Rovereto.

The startup was founded within the Radarmeteo company (which develops platforms and services for weather and climate monitoring to support operational activities, decision-making, and risk analysis) and specializes in the analysis of high-resolution weather and climate data. The context is that of a country experiencing frequent heat waves, droughts, torrential rains, violent hailstorms, tornadoes, and floods. Increasingly unpredictable weather causes an average of €6.8 billion in damages in Italy each year (according to the European Environment Agency, €135 billion from 1980 to 2024), and things aren't likely to improve: according to Legambiente, 351 extreme weather events were recorded in Italy in 2024, a 485% increase compared to 2015.

This is a scenario in which companies increasingly exposed to uncertainty need assistance, especially given the recently introduced legal requirements to purchase insurance policies to cover damages resulting from catastrophic events and natural disasters.

Hypermeteo—with a team of specialists under 35, including meteorologists, data scientists, computer engineers, AI specialists, and graduates in atmospheric physics or environmental sciences—is capable of providing absolutely precise weather forecasts: "To make a forecast, we typically start with the most precise possible three-dimensional description of the initial atmospheric state, defined by parameters such as pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind, derived from satellite measurements and meteorological stations scattered across the country. This initial state is then processed with numerical models that simulate the evolution of the weather by solving the fluid dynamics equations that describe the motion of the air and atmospheric processes," Degiacomi explains.

But according to Hypermeteo, to make these simulations increasingly accurate and reliable, it's essential to integrate real-time observations and have accurate historical data: "Our strength lies in having done significant in-depth work on observational data: we were able to collect the largest possible number of observations from station measurements, satellite measurements, and radiometric measurements across Italy, spanning a period of time dating back to the 1990s. This allowed us to reconstruct historical weather data up to 30 years ago, with a resolution of one square kilometer. This becomes the key to refining forecast chains using proprietary algorithms and therefore making much more accurate forecasts across the country."