Machine Learning-Based Rainfall Prediction: Unveiling Insights and Forecasting for Improved Preparedness

Abstract

Rainfall prediction plays a crucial role in raising awareness about the potential dangers associated with rain and enabling individuals to take proactive measures for their safety. This study aims to utilize machine learning algorithms to accurately predict rainfall, considering the significant impact of scarcity or extreme rainfall on both rural and urban life. The complex nature of rainfall, influenced by various atmospheric, oceanic, and geographical factors, makes it a challenging phenomenon to forecast. This research employs data preprocessing techniques, outlier analysis, correlation analysis, feature selection, and several machine learning algorithms such as Naive Bayes (NB), Decision Tree, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest, and Logistic Regression. The study focuses on developing the most accurate rainfall prediction model by utilizing machine learning and feature selection techniques. The Artificial Neural Network (ANN) achieves a maximum accuracy of 90% and 91% before and after feature selection, respectively. Furthermore, k-means clustering and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) are applied to examine regional rainfall patterns in Australia. Lastly, to make our proposed machine learning simpler and more usable for general people, we have formulated a web-based application system using Flask in our research paper. Overall, this research demonstrates the effectiveness of different machine-learning techniques in predicting rainfall using Australian weather data.

Keywords

• Rainfall
• rainfall prediction
• machine learning
• features selection
• PCA
• cluster analysis