National Weather Service AI hallucinations invent fake Idaho towns on weather maps

NWS AI-Generated Weather Predictions Are Making Up New Towns

How's the weather looking in Whata Bod, Idaho? Only AI can tell you. The National Weather Service recently posted a weather map on social media that was AI-generated and included several entirely made-up town names. In a post that has since been deleted and replaced by a seemingly still AI-generated but less error-riddled version, the official National Weather Service X account for Missoula, Montana, shared a map that showed a 10% chance of high winds in "Orangeotild" and lesser gusts in "Whata Bod," two towns that do not exist. The map also included geographical errors, according to the Washington Post, the result of NWS deciding to leave the generation of this information up to AI. It's not the first time this has happened. In November, the NWS office in Rapid City, South Dakota, posted a wind map to X that included misspelled town names. That image, which is still live on the account, included a Google Gemini watermark in the lower right-hand corner, indicating the image was generated with Google's AI model. A spokesperson for NWS told Gizmodo that the use of AI for public-facing information like these weather maps is uncommon, but it isn't prohibited. "Recently, a local office used AI to create a base map to display forecast information, however the map inadvertently displayed illegible city names,†the spokesperson said in an email. “The map was quickly corrected and updated social media posts were distributed.†Last August, the General Services Administration announced an agreement with Google to allow federal agencies to use Gemini for Government, Google's enterprise AI suite designed to comply with government requirements. Contained within that collection of tools is Gemini's image generation capabilities. Presumably, NWS offices have been using these tools to experiment with information generation. The office's parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, recently announced an embrace of AI for weather prediction models, which included a partnership with Google DeepMind. There is some promise to AI-enhanced weather prediction, including a recent paper published in Nature that showed some AI models are capable of providing accurate 10-day forecasts at smaller scales than traditional models. But even these models call for a human forecaster to confirm the information. That is getting harder to do over at NOAA and NWS, where the Trump administration has announced plans to cut 17% of staff. Getting the little things wrong is a great way to erode public trust, especially when the information is coming from official government accounts. After all, who cares how accurate your forecast is if it's a forecast for a made-up town?

National Weather Service Uses AI to Generate Forecasts, Accidentally Hallucinates Town With Dirty Joke Name

Months before it mysteriously vaporized into thin air, Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency ravaged the National Weather Service, leading to severe staffing shortages. While the Trump administration promised to rehire most of the around 550 lost jobs at the agency last summer, effectively admitting that DOGE had gone too far, the agency's offices across the country are still struggling with many roles that remain unfilled. And given the latest blunder, those who remain are seemingly struggling to keep up -- relying on flawed AI tech to come up with broken visuals for social media feeds. As the Washington Post reports, the National Weather Service was caught posting an AI-generated weather map that hallucinated names for towns in Idaho. A graphic forecasts "gusty south winds tonight" and shows a map that lays out the names of nonexistent towns, like "Orangeotilld" and "Whata Bod" -- an unintentionally hilarious hallucination that sounds more like an old timey dirty joke than an actual place where people live. The offending artwork was taken down on Monday, the same day WaPo notified the agency. Experts say that the painful blunder could undercut trust in the agency and lead to confusion. It also perfectly highlights the glaring shortcomings of AI tech that continue to lead to similar embarrassing incidents as the Trump administration pushes hard for the tech's adoption by government agencies. Last month, for instance, it hired 1,000 specialists for a "Tech Force" to build AI. But despite plenty of enthusiasm and resources being allocated to advancing the tech, baffling and easily avoided mistakes are falling through the cracks, as the latest incident goes to show. It's not even the first time a NWS office was caught posting lazy AI slop on social media. In November, the service in Rapid City, South Dakota, posted a map that included illegible location names, leading to widespread mockery. The NWS told WaPo in a statement that using AI for public-facing content is uncommon, but technically not prohibited. "Recently, a local office used AI to create a base map to display forecast information, however the map inadvertently displayed illegible city names," NWS spokeswoman Erica Grow Cei told the newspaper. "The map was quickly corrected and updated social media posts were distributed." Cei added that "NWS will continue to carefully evaluate results in cases where AI is implemented to ensure accuracy and efficiency, and will discontinue use in scenarios where AI is not effective." But the damage has already been done. As flawed generative AI tools continue to be used carelessly, without the necessary follow-up work of checking for hallucinations, experts warn that agencies like NWS could inflict serious damage to their reputation and authority. "If there's a way to use AI to fill that gap, I'm not one to judge," weather and climate communication expert Chris Gloninger told WaPo. "But I do fear that in the case of creating towns that don't exist, that kind of damages or hurts the public trust that we need to keep building."

'Whata Bod': An AI-generated National Weather Service map invented fake towns in Idaho

At first glance, there was nothing out of the ordinary about Saturday's wind forecast for Camas Prairie, Idaho. "Hold onto your hats!" said a social media post from the local weather office in Missoula, Montana. "Orangeotild" had a 10 percent chance of high winds, while just south, "Whata Bod" would be spared larger gusts. The problem? Neither of those places exists. Nor do a handful of the other spots marked on the National Weather Service's forecast graphic, riddled with spelling and geographical errors that the agency confirmed were linked to the use of generative AI. The blunder -- not the first of its kind to be posted by the NWS in the past year -- comes as the agency experiments with a wide range of AI uses, from advanced forecasting to graphic design. Experts worry that without properly trained officials, mistakes could erode trust in the agency and the technology. NWS said AI is not commonly used for public-facing content, nor is its use prohibited. The agency said it is exploring ways to employ AI to inform the public, and acknowledged mistakes have been made. "Recently, a local office used AI to create a base map to display forecast information, however the map inadvertently displayed illegible city names," said NWS spokeswoman Erica Grow Cei. "The map was quickly corrected and updated social media posts were distributed." A post with the inaccurate map was deleted Monday, the same day The Washington Post contacted officials with questions about the image. Cei added that "NWS is exploring strategic ways to continue optimizing our service delivery for Americans, including the implementation of AI where it makes sense. NWS will continue to carefully evaluate results in cases where AI is implemented to ensure accuracy and efficiency, and will discontinue use in scenarios where AI is not effective." A Nov. 25 tweet out of the Rapid City, South Dakota, office also had misspelled locations and the Google Gemini logo in its forecast. NWS did not confirm whether the Rapid City image was made with generative AI. The Weather Service often creates experimental forecasting products, said John Sokich, who worked there for 45 years before retiring in January 2025. "But it's their policy to ensure that type of experimentation is labeled. They have a rigorous process for testing a product before it becomes operational." Sokich added that he thought not labeling these images as experimental was "just an oversight." In the past year, hundreds of employees have been fired, retired or left NWS as part of the Trump administration's efforts to scale down the federal government. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- NWS's parent agency -- has vowed to refill many of those positions by September, but the losses have strained the service and its employees. "If there's a way to use AI to fill that gap, I'm not one to judge," said Chris Gloninger, a weather and climate communication expert and former broadcast meteorologist. "But I do fear that in the case of creating towns that don't exist, that kind of damages or hurts the public trust that we need to keep building." He noted that the wind forecast was relatively mild compared to other potential weather hazards. "If this were a forecast that would have direct impacts on public safety, or if this was a high-impact event, I don't think [generative-AI] would be used," Gloninger said. While it's not unusual to see misinformation in our social media feeds, generative-AI errors coming from a government agency highlight the need for training and awareness as organizations across the world reckon with the pros and cons of this rapidly developing technology, said Claire Wardle, an associate professor in the department of communications at Cornell University who is focused on misinformation and AI. "There's a lot of benefits. The problem is there's also major flaws," Wardle said. "If you're not trained to double-check for hallucinations, the location names, the logo, you're not going to realize you're making a mistake." She noted that these kinds of errors could make the public distrust other forms of AI that are completely different from the technology you'd use to create a weather graphic. NOAA announced in December an ambitious and advanced suite of new AI-driven global weather prediction models. Many weather experts cheered the push as a big step toward better and more accurate forecasting. "We need to do a better job more generally in society of helping people understand the different ways that AI is being deployed," Wardle said. Gloninger said that knowledge gap was increasingly important as AI advancements in science become more widespread. "Just because a graphic came out wrong doesn't mean the math and science and physics behind the models that are AI generated are wrong. They're very different," he said. Ben Noll contributed to this report.