PayPal and Amazon have developed fraud detection tools that depend on massive datasets containing not only financial details for transactions, but IP addresses, browser information, and other technical data that will help these companies refine models to predict, identify, and prevent fraudulent activity.

FORBES: Anti-Fraud Is Big Opportunity For Google, PayPal, Amazon

Bob Case, a retired NOAA meteorologist and the Boston-based forecaster who coined the phrase "the perfect storm, " said the weather models did a "fantastic job" in helping him and other forecasters predict the storm.

CNN: Forecasting "The Perfect Storm"

Scientists note that current climate-change models predict that some parts of the Antarctic ice sheet will grow while other parts will shrink, and that parts of the Greenland ice also will melt.

WSJ: Polar Ice Sheets Melt at Faster Pace

Other key fracking areas like New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio are less obviously prone to drought, but climate models predict more frequent and longer heat waves during Northeast and Midwest summers, including severe drought in some regions (as well as more frequent flooding in spring).

FORBES: Can No-Water Fracking Quiet Critics?