Your weather app can’t save you — but a new system might

The following article is a guest post and opinion of Ting Peng, Head of Ecosystem at SkyX Network.

What do you do when the weather app says light rain, but a flash flood tears through your town instead? You blame the app. Your rightful ire is a bit misplaced, though: It could very much be the data, or rather the lack thereof. In May 2023, deadly floods tore through parts of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing hundreds of people. Most had no idea the water was coming. Not because no one cared, but because the systems meant to warn the local communities simply didn’t have enough data to sound the alarm in time.

This wasn’t just a tragedy, it was a wake-up call. If we want to build real climate resilience in the 21st century, we have to start by rethinking how we gather weather data. The good news? We already have the tools. The combination of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) and artificial intelligence may be the best way we can keep up with a climate that no longer plays by the rules.

Too Far, Too Late: Why Weather Warnings Miss the Mark

Most people don’t realize how patchy our current weather infrastructure really is. In many parts of the world, forecasts are based on data from just a few official weather stations which are often miles away from the people they’re supposed to protect. That’s fine if you live near a station. But what if you don’t?

What made the 2023 Lake Kivu floods so deadly wasn’t just the water, but also the total lack of early warning. Rwanda had at least some meteorological data. Across the border in eastern DRC, there was virtually none. No local sensors. No alert systems. Just thousands of people living in flood-prone areas with no idea they were in danger.

This isn’t rare. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people live in what could be called “data deserts” — places where weather patterns go unmonitored, unreported, and unpredicted. According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), 60% of the African population is not covered by any early warning systems. As climate change supercharges storms, droughts, and floods, those deserts are becoming death traps.

AI Can’t Stop the Rain — But It Can Help You See It Coming

So how do we tackle this? What if instead of relying on a handful of government-run weather stations, we tapped into thousands of small, distributed weather sensors? That’s what DePIN enables: Community-powered networks where individuals contribute to physical infrastructure, and are incentivized to do so.

When paired with AI, the potential becomes staggering. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s technical paper on AI for climate action points out that AI can aggregate and analyze real-time data from decentralized sources, identify hyperlocal patterns, detect anomalies like sudden temperature drops or unexpected rainfall, and help issue alerts that are actually relevant to people where they are. 

It’s the combination of scale and intelligence that makes this model so powerful. Centralized systems will always be limited. But decentralized networks can grow organically wherever people are willing to plug in.

Don’t Replace the System. Upgrade It.

Skeptics might argue that decentralized data and the use of AI is messy or unreliable. That it needs strict oversight. But AI can actually excel at filtering out bad data, spotting inconsistencies, and learning from patterns across thousands of sources. This isn’t about replacing national meteorological agencies — it’s about helping them. 

A weather agency can only install so many stations. But tap into a decentralized network, and suddenly their coverage multiplies. Their forecasts improve. Their warnings get sharper. Everyone wins. Climate disasters are becoming more frequent and more intense. The people most affected are often the least connected. If we keep relying on centralized systems alone, more lives will be lost.

We Can’t Control the Climate — But We Can Control What Happens Next

When people die not because of a storm, but because they didn’t know it was coming, we’ve failed as a global community. That failure isn’t inevitable. Climate extremes are hitting the world’s most vulnerable people the hardest. And the cruel irony is that in many of these places, sufficient weather warnings could have been issued… We just haven’t bothered to rethink the current model.

We already have the tools to change the outcome. But tools don’t work unless we use them. We just need to decide: Do we want weather systems that serve everyone, or only the few within range of the radar?