Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: In a major shift from conventional weather forecasting, two advanced weather forecast products designed to provide hyper-local, impact-based and AI-driven weather services across the country was launched in New Delhi on May 12.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh, who launched the products, said it is a major shift from conventional weather forecasting towards impact-based and decision-support forecasting, capable of providing precise, location-specific and actionable information to farmers, administrators, disaster managers and citizens.
The systems have been developed jointly by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF).
Singh said the AI-enabled monsoon advance forecasting system will provide probabilistic forecasts of monsoon progression every Wednesday up to four weeks in advance.
The product has been designed to support farmers across 16 States and more than 3,000 sub-districts through the dissemination framework of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
The system combines AI-based forecasting models, extended range prediction systems and statistical techniques to provide operationally useful forecasts for agricultural planning and preparedness, the minister said.
The second product, High Spatial Resolution Rainfall Forecast for Uttar Pradesh, has been developed as a pilot service to generate rainfall forecasts at 1-km spatial resolution up to 10 days in advance.
The system uses advanced AI-driven downscaling techniques and integrates data from Automatic Rain Gauges (ARGs), Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs), Doppler Weather Radars and satellite-based rainfall datasets.
The service would be useful for agriculture, water resources, renewable energy, urban planning, disaster management and infrastructure sectors.
The Minister said farmers would now be able to make more informed decisions relating to sowing, irrigation, crop protection and harvest planning with far greater local precision.