 The history of numerical weather prediction considers how current weather conditions as input into mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to predict the weather and future sea state ( the process of numerical weather prediction ) has changed over the years . Though first attempted manually in the 1920s , it was not until the advent of the computer and computer simulation that computation time was reduced to less than the forecast period itself . ENIAC was used to create the first forecasts via computer in 1950 , and over the years more powerful computers have been used to increase the size of initial datasets as well as include more complicated versions of the equations of motion . The development of global forecasting models led to the first climate models . The development of limited area ( regional ) models facilitated advances in forecasting the tracks of tropical cyclone as well as air quality in the 1970s and 1980s . 
