Module 6: Weather Forecasting

Virtual Academy for the Semi Arid Tropics

Modules Lessons

Lesson 2: About weather forecasting

After completing this Lesson, you have learned

to answer:

1. What is weather forecasting?

2. How weather is predicted?
3. How reliable is this weather forecasting?
4. What is Indian Meteorological
Department (IMD) and how weather
forecasting is carried out by IMD?

Course on Crop-Weather Relationships

Module 6: Weather Forecasting
Virtual Academy for the Semi Arid Tropics

Modules Lessons

Lesson 2: About weather forecasting

What is weather forecasting?

• Weather forecasting is a prediction of what the

weather will be like in an hour, tomorrow, next week
or during a season.

• Weather forecasts, such as:

"Look for cloudy skies with afternoon
thunderstorms and a high of 380 C"
provide critical information about the weather to
come.

Course on Crop-Weather Relationships

Module 6: Weather Forecasting
Virtual Academy for the Semi Arid Tropics

Modules Lessons

Lesson 2: About weather forecasting

How weather is predicted?

• Weather forecasters collect data on atmospheric

conditions, including temperature, humidity,
pressure, wind speed, and its direction etc.

• High-speed computers, meteorological satellites,

and weather radars are tools used to collect the
weather data.

• Such data are fed into the sophisticated computers

to interpret the weather conditions.

Course on Crop-Weather Relationships

Module 6: Weather Forecasting
Virtual Academy for the Semi Arid Tropics

Modules Lessons

Lesson 2: About weather forecasting

How weather is predicted?

• Weather forecasting is a very important activity

of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
• IMD provides very comprehensive forecasting
services for different users.
• IMD has forecasting offices at its 6 Regional
Meteorological Centers and Meteorological
Centers at the State capitals.
• In addition it has two major forecasting centers
at New Delhi and Pune.

Course on Crop-Weather Relationships

Module 6: Weather Forecasting
Virtual Academy for the Semi Arid Tropics

Modules Lessons

Lesson 2: About weather forecasting

How weather is predicted?

• Indian Meteorological Department (IMD)

maintains a countrywide network of observational
stations from where weather reports are received
at Pune through the Regional Telecommunication
Hub based at New Delhi.

• With the help of these reports and other

observations from the globe, the Pune office
issues the All India Daily Weather Bulletin and
Weather Forecasts for the entire country.

Course on Crop-Weather Relationships

Module 6: Weather Forecasting
Virtual Academy for the Semi Arid Tropics

Modules Lessons

Lesson 2: About weather forecasting

How reliable is this weather forecasting?

• Atmospheric conditions change rapidly.

• Hence, even with sophisticated computer

models, satellite images, and monitoring
stations across most of the planet, forecasts
can be not exact.

• That is, sometimes the weather is more

predictable than at other times.

Course on Crop-Weather Relationships

Module 6: Weather Forecasting
Virtual Academy for the Semi Arid Tropics

Modules Lessons

This concludes Lesson 2- About weather

forecasting - in this Module.

Next Lesson is about types of weather

forecasting.

Click “Lessons” button to select Lesson 3

Course on Crop-Weather Relationships