"Forecast at city level not improved to desired levely

WHO: Akshay Deoras, Master's student at the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, University of Leeds

WHAT: India has got a new weather prediction model for better forecasts. The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences claims that India's weather prediction has improved in the past five years.

WHY: It's a fact that weather forecasting has improved in India in recent years. We can now forecast cyclones, heat and cold waves really well. But the accuracy and clarity of forecasts at the local level - district and city-has still not improved to the desired extent. A perfect example of this is the Chennai deluge of December 2015. Forecasters were accurate in predicting that coastal Tamil Nadu would receive heavy rainfall. But they could not predict the region-specific impact. I blame the India Meteorological Department's forecasters who still like to use British-era terminologies, such as "in one or two place". With time, they should also improve their skills as accuracy of weather forecast depends not only on the weather models but also on the forecasters' skills.