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