Earth System Science Organisation-India Meteorological Department to issue Summer Temperature Outlook this Year
Earth System Science Organisation-India Meteorological Department (ESSO-IMD) will come out, for the first time, with a summer advisory/ summer temperature outlook this year. Stating this in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today the Minister of State for Ministry of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Shri Y.S.Chowdary said that these forecast assessments will however be issued on experimental basis this year. The temperature outlook valid for the period April to June, 2016 will be issued by the end of March. An extended range forecast (up to 15-days) of summer temperatures with a 5-day update will also be issued by the ESSO-IMD.
The modified terminologies have been implemented from 1st January 2016 after a review on the present terms and terminologies being used in operational weather forecasts by a committee which was set up to and to recommend changes for implementation based on interpretation of latest data.
The decision by the committee to discontinue with the usage of the term All India Drought Year to be replaced by All India Deficient Rainfall Year was mainly owing to the observational fact that the drought situation never manifests across the country as a whole.
Monitoring of the seasonal - monthly / weekly rainfall scenario with reference to respective normal (mean value) is only carried out by ESSO-IMD to regularly assess and identify zones of deficit rainfall. The declaration of drought conditions remains within the mandate of Ministry of Agriculture, which it does, in consultation with various state governments. Because of this, the term All India Drought Year is replaced by All India Deficient Rainfall Year.
