<p>Forecasting thunderstorms and heavy rainfall is one of the most challenging tasks in meteorology, as such weather events occur locally and vary spatially. Only numerical weather models have made quantitative precipitation forecasts possible, their accuracy has increased continuously since their introduction. The introduction of ensemble methods enables the quantification of systematically unavoidable forecast uncertainty. The SINFONY system at the DWD is improving nowcasting and short-range numerical forecasting, making them faster and combining both approaches. AI-based methods are also increasingly finding their way into weather forecasting.</p>