When I was gainfully employed years ago, many times we used the US Air Force Global Weather Service for mission planning and operations. We typically had 2 of their personnel (NCOs) with us on operations who communicated with Offutt AFB on an "as needed" basis.
It was amazing what they could do and do it very quickly. The computerized "models" they could create were phenomenal. For instance, the mission might be a night time ground attack, simple recon, etc on a simple structure, cave, etc. Using imagery of various sources, they could factor in shadows from the moon's "percent of illumination, weather / climate conditions, etc. The models were very good at what you could expect to see under the conditions of the time of the operations. Even back then, the pics, videos, etc produced were realistic. Much, much more but that's the idea of their capabilities.
They absolutely contributed to mission success / failure. They are now the 557th Weather Wing out of Offutt AFB. The time period I refer to is Iraq / Afghanistan / other. I can only imagine what they can do now. I honestly can't see much room for improvement but I'm sure they have some crazy stuff going now. The best of the best.
