Southern India, now battered with the scorching heat, is awaiting the monsoon showers that bring some respite during the month of June. It looks like the wait would not be too long and well worth it. In a press release issued today, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has announced that the southwest monsoon rainfall over the country, on the whole, is likely to be normal.

Researchers from IIT Kanpur, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA, University of Hyderabad, and IIT Delhi have tried to understand how aerosols affect the Indian monsoon season.

Accurate prediction of the monsoon is important for all sections of the society. A study from Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology shows how we can now predict the accurate arrival of monsoon rains almost three months in advance.

After the devastating Tsunami in 2004, various measures have been taken by the Government of India to be more prepared in the future. Indian Tsunami Early Warning System (ITEWS) is one such effort undertaken by  Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).

Dev Raj Sikka was born on 1st March 1932, in Jhang Maghiana in the undivided Punjab. After completing his M.Sc in physical chemistry from Agra University with a first rank, Sikka began his career in the Indian Meteorological Department in 1954. He later joined the Institute of Tropical Meteorology (known today as Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology), becoming its Director in 1986. 

The Ministry of Earth Sciences is set to extend the Monsoon Mission from the predicting the rains of the monsoon to disaster management. The facility will improve monsoon forecasts over the short and extended range. The programme is aimed to help the farming sector manage thier agricultural operations and water reservoirs.

Thunderstorms, coupled with torrential rains are a regular phenomenon in India. Each year, thunderstorms claim hundreds of lives and destroy crops and livestock worth crores of rupees. Although meteorologists predict them, it’s too late to warn the affected people to save the loss. Now, researchers have developed an accurate model to predict severe thunderstorms in the Indian Monsoon Region (IMR). By being able to accurately predict this weather phenomenon much in advance, we could save many lives, claim the researchers.