Jess Robertson: Earth Sciences NZ spokesperson on the new supercomputer set to boost weather predictions - Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

A new $35-million-dollar supercomputer is levelling up the country's weather predictions.

Earth Sciences New Zealand says the new Cascade system is three times more powerful than its predecessor - helping provide earlier and more frequent forecasting.

It's hoped the computer's advanced modelling capabilities could mitigate the impact of severe weather events.

Spokesperson Jess Robertson says the machine is an 'absolute beast'.

"It'll do more calculations in a day than you could do in 30 million years, and that mean's we're going to be able to run higher resolution forecasts quicker and get them out to people sooner."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.