Raise your hand if you have an Android. You could help predict the next major thunderstorm or even give advance warning about an impending tornado. Atmospheric sensors began being incorporated into Android devices following the release of Android 3.0. These sensors are intended to make location pinpointing more accurate, but a group of scientists is looking to collect that data and use it to help identify and predict weather patterns in-the-wild. From Wired:

“The first I heard about these [Android] pressure sensors I said, ‘Oh my god, this could be a huge game changer,’” said Cliff Mass, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington. “My vision is someone needs to collect all these observations across the country — we could have a million an hour – and use that to radically improve weather prediction.” …

Right now forecasters can vaguely tell you that there’s a chance of thunderstorms the next day. But if researchers can incorporate a large volume of pressure readings into climate models to define features associated with severe weather events, they can begin predicting when a severe storm will hit a specific part of a city up to six hours in advance. “You couldn’t do that now with any skill,” Mass said. …

Mass has been working with Jacob Sheehy and Phil Jones, the developers of an Android app called PressureNet. They say it’s the only barometer app on Android that not only shows users the pressure reading in their location but collects the data and shares it back to all users. The app lets users zoom into a location on a map to see a graph of the collected readings from that region.

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Right now, pressure sensors are included on a handful of devices, including the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 10, Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note. PressureNet and Mass are still working out the kinks (like getting people to download the app and any potential privacy issues), but if people buy into this system, it could have amazing real life implications on weather prediction.