Google (GOOGL  ) recently announced it was launching its extreme weather tracking tool, known as "Flood Hub," in multiple countries. This tool, which will be expanded to include wildfire tracking in over 20 countries, will be active United States, Canada, Mexico, and Australia to alert users of flood forecasting and other hazardous types of weather events.

This weather tracking system, which makes use of machine learning models based upon satellite data, makes predictions in terms of how wildfires will spread after tracking the exact nature of the wildfire. "Our machine learning models trained using satellite imagery allow us to identify and track wildfires in real time and predict how they will spread, enabling us to support firefighters and other first responders," Katherine Chou, senior director at Google Research, said in a statement.

According to a report from the United Nations, much of the world does not have access to substantial early warning systems for natural disasters like floods or fires. It is hoped for and intended that this new tool created by Google will help many people in terms of raising awareness to natural disasters before they grow too out of hand.

In terms of when and how these particular weather tracking alerts will be released, they will go out to Android phone users or any phone with the Google search app downloaded. Ultimately, people will need to have Google location services enabled on their phones, and to have active internet access.

Prior to sending out an official alert in terms of the weather, flooding, or other natural disasters, Google first must predict the exact location of the flooding and the depth of the water. This feature must rely on a technology known as "transfer learning" in order to make assessments and predictions were much less data is accessible.

Overall, the "Flood Hub" feature created by Google will help raise awareness in terms of obtaining accurate data about floods and other natural disasters. It will help people to make predictions based on actual weather data rather than guesswork based on water level gauges.