The India Meteorological Department (IMD), also referred to as the Met Department, is an agency of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India.
It is the principal agency responsible for meteorological observations, weather forecasting and seismology.
IMD is headquartered in New Delhi and operates hundreds of observation stations across India and Antarctica.
IMD is also one of the six Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres of the World Meteorological Organization.
It has the responsibility for forecasting, naming and distribution of warnings for tropical cyclones in the Northern Indian Ocean region, including the Malacca Straits, the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Some of the achievements during 2015 are given below:
Accurate prediction of SW Monsoon 2015 rainfall (Actual: 86%, Forecast: 88% of Long Period Average)
Accurate prediction of NE Monsoon 2015 rainfall (Actual: 132%, Forecast: >111% of Long Period Average)
Accurate prediction of Extreme weather events like extremely heavy rains over Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu during southwest and northeast monsoon 2015, severe heat wave in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in May, 2015, Hail storm over northwest, central and adjoining north Peninsula India during March, 2015.
Significant improvement in short and medium range weather forecasts ( Probability of Detection & Critical Success Index improved by 37% and 46% and False Alarm rate & missing rate reduced by 77% and 36% respectively in 2013-2015 over 2002-2012 for southwest monsoon heavy rainfall warnings).
Accurate prediction of cyclones (forecast error reduced by 13,13,17 km for 1,2,3 days, respectively in 2015 over 2010-2014).
Provided City Weather forecast for 324 stations, tourism forecast for 106 stations and nowcast for 156 stations.
Increased forecasts and colour code warnings validity from 3 to 5 days over India and introduced sector wise 7-days special forecast & warnings for Western Himalayan Region for Indian Army. Provided Model based QPF for river basin for flood forecasting.
IMD has made rapid strides in modernizing its services by adopting DIGITAL INDIA initiative of the Prime Minister by using latest technology for information dissemination.
IMD has upgraded its website to make it more user-friendly and we are now widely using GIS platform, mobile apps and SMS for dissemination of its alerts and advisories.
Under MAKE IN INDIA programme, Department has already deployed 20 Drishti Transmissometers at critical Airports and 222 DTH based Digital Cyclone Warning Dissemination Systems (CWDS).
Automatic weather observing system jointly developed by National Aeronautical Laboratory and IMD is under validation.