Dr. Satyaban's Climate Blog: Understanding India's Weather and Climate

Introductory Note Climate services have become an essential component of climate risk management and sustainable development in an era of increasing climate variability and change. As India's National Meteorological Service, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has continuously expanded its climate monitoring, forecasting, advisory, and early warning capabilities to support diverse sectors of society. This article highlights the current achievements of IMD's climate services, discusses the proposed National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS), and outlines future directions aimed at enhancing climate resilience and informed decision-making across the country. 1. INTRODUCTION India Meteorological Department (IMD), established in 1875, is the national agency for meteorological observations, weather and climate forecasting in India. It has a legacy of providing critical meteorological services for diverse sectors of Indian society. Its climate services have evolved over d...

Introductory Note Climate variability and climate change are increasingly influencing our lives through more frequent and intense extreme weather events such as heat waves, heavy rainfall, floods, droughts, and cyclones. As these risks grow, there is a greater need for reliable climate information that can support planning, preparedness, and informed decision-making across sectors ranging from agriculture and water resources to health, energy, and disaster management. In October 2023, a significant stakeholder consultation workshop was organized in Lavasa, Pune, to discuss the establishment of a National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS) in India. The initiative aligns with the World Meteorological Organization's Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), which seeks to strengthen the production, delivery, and use of climate information for societal benefit. The article reproduced below discusses the importance of NFCS-India, the role of the India Meteorological Department a...

2023 Cold Wave Conditions in India Many parts of India are currently experiencing cold wave conditions around 7 -8 January 2023. Severe cold wave with dense fog observed in the states like Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. The IMD had issued a red warning (meaning 'take action') over many regions in northwest and north India. Figure: Observed (top panel) maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and mean temperature and the  anomaly (bottom panel) of  over India during 7 - 8 January 2023 *Based on Realtime Data [Source: IMD] Figure: Observed minimum temperature  anomaly of  over India during 5 - 12 January 2023 *Based on Realtime Data [Source: IMD] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The criteria adopted by IMD to define Cold Wave is given below:  (A) Cold Wave Cold Wave conditions for plains or hilly regions Cold Wave is considered when the minimum temperature of a station is 10 C or l...

2022 annual statement on climate of India by IMD The annual mean temperature of India for the year 2022 was the fifth warmest year on record since 1901. The other four warmest years on record, in descending order, were 2016, 2009, 2017, and 2010. The pre-monsoon (March–May) period was exceptionally hot in 2022, and many parts of the country experienced severe heatwave conditions during this season. The image shows the all-India mean temperature anomaly for the years 1901–2022 with respect to the 1981–2010 climatology. There were several significant extreme weather events that occurred in India during 2022. India might be a unique country that experiences a variety of extreme weather events in a calendar year, from heatwaves to coldwaves; dust storms to snowfall; and from lightning/thunderstorms to heavy rainfall events/floods to cyclonic storms, etc. Furthermore, extreme events occurred across India from north to south and east to west. India experienced many extreme weather events in...

The India Meteorological Department released the December 2022 monthly climate summary. As per the report, the all-India mean temperature for December 2022 is the highest on record (21.49 ºC) since 1901. Similarly, the average maximum temperature for December 2022 is the second highest (27.32 ºC) after the year 2016 (27.75 ºC) while the average minimum temperature is also the second highest (15.65 ºC) after the year 2008 (15.69 ºC) since records began in 1901 (Table 1). The all-India spatial patterns of maximum, minimum and mean temperature for December 2022 is given in Figure 1. Coincidently, all three years (2008, 2016 and 2022) happened to be La Nina years (Figure 2) with December Nino3.4 index values of -0.90 ºC, -0.51ºC and -0.90 ºC respectively. Table 1: The observed temperatures during December 2022 for all India and four homogeneous regions with its ranks since 1901. Values are rounded off to nearest two decimal. [Source: IMD] Figure 1: Observed spatial tempe...