An Ominous Hurricane Season Will Test New AI Weather Forecasting (3)

With the pull of a cord, a balloon laden with sensors careens into the cloudless sky above a parking lot in Palo Alto, California. Below, three of the co-founders of WindBorne Systems Inc., an artificial intelligence weather-forecasting startup, crane their necks to watch what looks like a jiggling jellyfish begin a multiday journey across the US and potentially beyond.

The sensors on the balloon will monitor wind speed, temperature and atmospheric pressure as it travels through the atmosphere for as many as 12 days. It’s part of WindBorne’s multipronged strategy to make better weather predictions by collecting data, which ...