Developing Highly Advanced Weather Forecasting Software Systems: Nevada, Colorado - based TempoQuest, Inc Innovates to Keep Pace

A major disruption to commerce is weather, and fast, accurate regional forecasting is the critical solution to mitigating those disruptions, as well as protecting human lives, property and industry profits: Gene Pache

The science behind creating a weather forecast begins with millions of observations of factors like wind speed, air pressure, humidity and temperature. Global data from land and sea-based instruments is matched with those from aircraft, weather balloons and satellites outside the earth’s atmosphere. All instruments must be calibrated at regular intervals to ensure accuracy. Given that most countries have their own meteorological equipment, it’s important that instruments are tested to World Meteorological Organization standards.

But even with all of this information at their disposal, organizations need more data in order to make accurate predictions. It’s impossible to cover every inch of the earth and the sky, so an important part of the process is attempting to join the dots between the quantifiable observations with what it believes the conditions will be in unreachable areas. This is called data assimilation and is the first step towards creating an accurate weather forecast.

In light of the above mentioned, we are thrilled to present TempoQuest, Inc – a software-as-a-service company established to meet the need for faster, more accurate weather forecasts. Today, the company is in the process of developing unique software, which will deliver next-generation weather forecasts to commercial users and government agencies around the world.

The company has achieved accelerations in regional forecast weather processing as high as 700 percent. And that the acceleration resulted from transforming the most widely used regional weather forecasting model WRF Central Processing Unit (CPU)-based open source code to NVIDIA’s Graphical Processing Unit (GPU)-based CUDA code computed on the Volta GPU. This advancement will allow users to leverage TempoQuest’s AceCAST platform to run customized WRF applications for the Agriculture, Renewable Energy, Automated Aerial Vehicles and ground transportation industries faster and cheaper than any weather model available today.

TempoQuest was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Interview Excerpt: Gene Pache, Founder/CEO

Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

The company was founded to develop a weather forecasting software platform to accelerate the processing time required to develop regional weather forecasts, increase the frequency of forecast dissemination, and improve their accuracy by a factor of three, and provide the best weather visualizations in the world.

Our suite of weather forecasting software solutions are being designed to run on NVIDIA graphic processor unit accelerators (GPUs) instead of CPUs. This will dramatically increase the speed and accuracy of analysis. Though GPU accelerators are currently in use for other ‘big data’ applications, the technology has not yet been applied to comprehensive weather data analysis.

NVIDIA Corporation has committed to providing us with support and assistance, including, technical support on application engineering, hardware and software integration as well as marketing, sales and distribution assistance for our GPU forecasting product.

As currently practiced, satellite sensors, drones, radar, etc., will continue to collect global weather data. We will then process this data and provide it to today’s major specialist weather companies. For several of their high-value end users, like commodity traders, insurance firms, power utilities, major agricultural companies, etc., speed and accuracy are critical to the success of their businesses and an extremely valuable asset.

AceCAST™: A Ground-breaking Product

TempoQuest’s first product, AceCAST™, improves the processing speed of regional weather forecasts by 7X and enhances precision by over 3X. A game changing product in the rapidly growing multi-billion dollar weather industry, AceCAST™ enables a broad range of commercial and governmental organizations to save lives and reduces risk of property damage caused by severe weather events.

What were the grounds on which you have expanded your company and its offerings over the years? 

The key to our growth is leveraging the dramatic advancements in computer processing unit and exploiting these changes through creative innovation. In addition to successfully applying the technological advancements to weather predictions, a diverse collection of knowledge is required which includes High-Performance Computing, Graphic Processing Units & CUDA code, Atmospheric Science, Meteorology, Numerical Weather Prediction, Visualization and Cloud operations.

Furthermore, necessity is the mother of invention. Finding key players to solve problems has been the key contributor to success. When we find an open space to fill, we find great people to fill those spots and they bring with them all sorts of solutions.

What are the biggest assets to your organization? What would they be and why?

• Technology DNA – Technology shifts radically change business principles. New technologies are being developed all the time, and the impact this has had on our business is immeasurable. Simply put, you cannot scale without a strong technology foundation.
• Core Team – We strive to provide an environment where learning is prized, and not just the action of learning but the measured application of new methods, new technologies, etc. We also want people to share their knowledge, by sharing they undergo a deeper level of learning themselves.

TempoQuest’s core values are summed up as: unique client experience strategy, pride in our work, integrity, collaborative teams, fulfilling environment.

Every executive, team, and individual adopts these values as their perspective when applying efforts to every project and in every aspect of developing client relationships. Operating at this level of understanding and perspective keeps focus on our larger goals.

Two-way communication is most effective, and employees need to feel they have an outlet for sharing their observations and ideas. How does this idea come to life at TempoQuest?

TempoQuest’s office culture is innovative and energetic, and everyone periodically rolls up their sleeves to help co-workers when needed, regardless of their titles. We are looking for employees who share a similar sense of purpose as it is imperative to surround yourself with great teams. Having teams that you can rely on allows you to maximize your time, your efforts and your creative output.

Do you have any new products ready to be/getting ready to be launched?

Yes, we will be launching AceCAST 2.0 later this year. As well as STORMCAST 2.0, an updated visualization product.

Where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

I would say, in a couple of years we may have doubled in size, but more importantly, we will continue to be an exceptional team delivering agile services to our clients.

The Man Behind The Operation: A Brief Background

Gene Pache, Founder/CEO: Gene Pache brings over 25 years of business experience in start-ups and Fortune 500 enterprises. He began his business career in sales and marketing management at Raychem Corporation. He subsequently joined Nashua Corporation where he was appointed to President of Nashua’s Label Company. Later, he joined ITT where he was responsible for new business development.

Mr. Pache is the founder of several software start-ups; including ZoeMed, Inc., Oncology Care International, Inc., Grads.com and Amadeus Inc.

Mr. Pache holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD and a Master of Science in Aeronautical Systems Engineering from the University of West Florida, Pensacola. He is a jet pilot, and a carrier Naval Aviator, where he retired as a Navy Captain.

“Our suite of weather forecasting software solutions are being designed to run on NVDIA graphic processor unit accelerators (GPUs) instead of CPUs. This will dramatically increase the speed and accuracy of analysis.”