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Weather drones are being tested to help update forecasts of extreme weather more quickly, and could help us prepare earlier for upcoming winter storms.

With an unprecedented El Niño increasing the chance of storms and wet weather in Europe this winter, meteorologists will be looking at new and developing tools to help them forecast as accurately as possible.

The ability of new types of weather drones to collect more information ahead of incoming bad weather has already attracted the attention of financial traders .

Energy traders have to buy and sell electricity produced from sources like wind and solar farms. They need to judge the supply and demand as quickly as possible. This means they need updates to weather forecasts so they can predict when clouds might shade solar panels, or if an approaching storm could increase wind turbine generation.

U.S.…