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ARMONK, NY -- IBM will build for the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts the world's most powerful supercomputer and storage network for weather prediction. Also known as "Blue Storm," the IBM p690-based system will provide information that will improve activities ranging from the early warning of severe storms and floods to the optimal routing of ships at sea to the planning of family picnics. IBM will supply the centre with a computing infrastructure including a supercomputer that is projected to be about five times more powerful than the centre's current systems -- plus a data storage network of IBM storage servers and tape systems and software. Researchers will access Blue Storm via IBM IntelliStation workstations running Linux, while researchers throughout Europe will access the system over a wide-area network. The centre is supported by 22 European states --Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Iceland and Slovenia. Main objectives of the centre are the daily preparation of medium-range weather forecasts up to 10 days ahead, scientific and technical research directed to the improvement of these forecasts, development of an operational seasonal forecasting capability and the collection and storage of meteorological data.