India has introduced two new artificial intelligence-enabled weather forecasting systems to improve hyperlocal weather predictions and strengthen disaster preparedness, agriculture planning, and public decision-making.
Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Tuesday launched the AI-driven “Forecast of Monsoon Advance over Different Parts of the Country” and a “High Spatial Resolution Rainfall Forecast for Uttar Pradesh” pilot service developed under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
The systems have been jointly developed by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting.
Addressing the launch event in New Delhi, Dr Singh said India’s forecasting systems have undergone a major transformation over the past decade through technological advancements, improved modelling systems, and expanded observational infrastructure.
“IMD has today become an integral component of governance, disaster preparedness, agriculture planning and everyday public decision-making,” the Minister added.
According to the ministry, the AI-enabled monsoon forecasting platform will provide probabilistic forecasts of monsoon progression every Wednesday up to four weeks in advance. The service has been designed to support farmers across 16 states and more than 3,000 sub-districts through the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare's dissemination framework.
The system combines AI-based forecasting models, statistical techniques and extended-range prediction systems to provide more operationally useful forecasts for agriculture and rural planning.
The second system, introduced as a pilot project for Uttar Pradesh, will generate rainfall forecasts at 1 km spatial resolution up to 10 days in advance. The service uses AI-driven downscaling methods and integrates data from Doppler weather radars, satellites, automatic rain gauges, and automatic weather stations.
Dr Singh noted that the initiative marks a shift from conventional forecasting to impact-based and decision-support forecasting capable of delivering location-specific and actionable weather information.
The Minister also highlighted the expansion of India’s weather infrastructure, including increasing the number of Doppler weather radars from around 16 a decade ago to nearly 50 currently, with 50 more planned under Mission Mausam.
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