Chennai: It appears that this year, the northeast monsoon has kept the Indian Metrological Department (IMD) and weathermen on its toes, as the weather pattern has played hide and seek. However, private weather bloggers support the IMD stating that the IMD alone cannot be blamed and more research should be done to make accurate predictions.
From early October, the IMD buzz on the onset of the northeast monsoon has been very vociferous. However, its first prediction with a red alert on October 7 on the matter went up in thin air, as it later withdrew the red alert. The IMD did not accurately time the northeast monsoon. The weathermen forecast the northeast monsoon wrongly thrice in October. Going by the present scenario, weather bloggers play a key role in predicting the weather pattern. It seems that weathermen only update the weather pattern, while private meteorologists predict weather changes. However, IMD officials deny this stating that they also use various technologies to predict weather patterns over the sea.
Vedic astro-meteorologist Ramachandran says, “The IMD alone should not blamed, because it is in touch with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and other countries’ satellite systems. Unless the existing scientific systems change, there will be no accurate systems.” The fact remains that the IMD only updates weather changes, he added. He also noted that technology is more important than individuals. When asked about technology he uses to predict, he replied, “I use the geo centric graph which helps to forecast the long-term weather pattern.”
Similarly, K. Srikanth, a weather blogger of Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikkalam, said, “I closely follow international websites. The radar images sent by IMD are also very useful for comparing weather patterns with international systems.” Global weather models like GFS and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) are being used to predict systems over the sea, he noted. Srikanth also noted that the IMD cannot be blamed, and there should be a highly advanced technology system.
Meanwhile, weathermen said that no countries in the world can accurately predict weather patterns. “Since India is a tropical country, weather patterns change frequently. We are also following the models of global countries. Of course, technology should be improved to make exact predictions and researchers are working on this,” said a weatherman.
