IMD to start making state-wise monsoon forecast from next year

NEW DELHI: The India Meteorological Department ( IMD) will start giving state-specific monsoon forecast from next year.

"IMD will start making state-wise monsoon forecast from 2017 apart from zone-wise prediction," Union Minister for Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan told PTI.

Secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences M Rajeevan said from 2018-19 it will be extended to include other seasons.

"The National Monsoon Mission has already been approved. It's a Rs 400 crore project. Dynamic model is being introduced now. Big computers have already been installed, the programmes have been put in place.

"From next year we will start a spatial model. We will start giving monthly models. These are in advanced stages. There is a detailed plan to take it to the block level in next 2-3 years," Harsh Vardhan said.

The IMD currently gives zone-specific daily monsoon forecast during the season for northwest, central India, southern peninsula and east and northeast regions. It is further divided into sub-zones.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences has launched 'National Monsoon Mission' (NMM) with a vision to develop a state-of-the-art dynamical prediction system for monsoon rainfall on different time scales.

MoES has bestowed the responsibility of execution and coordination of this mission to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune.

For this national mission, IITM is collaborating with NCEP (USA), MoES organisations and various academic organizations and institutions under NMM. Climate Forecast System (CFS) of NCEP, USA has been identified as the basic modelling system for the purpose as it is one of the best among the currently available models.