Mobile Phone Towers Could Help Predict Flash Flooding

Researchers from Tel Aviv University say that they can use mobile phone towers to predict the intensity of weather derived flooding, before it arrives. They said that such a technique could have acted as an early-warning for New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit the US city.

Their model, protected by a patent application which analyses cell phone signals, adds an essential and critical component to weather forecasting, never before available.

"By monitoring the specific and fluctuating atmospheric moisture around cell phone towers throughout America, we can cheaply, effectively, and reliably provide a more accurate 'critical moisture distribution' level for fine-tuning model predictions of big floods," says Prof. Pinhas Alpert, a geophysicist and head of the Porter School for Environmental Education at Tel Aviv University.