Weather and Weather Forecasting

Abstract

All human activities are linked with the state of the atmosphere i.e., the weather. One can plan one’s activities if the weather conditions are known in advance. Weather forecasting is the attempt by the meteorologists to predict the state of the atmosphere at some future time. Though weather forecasting started in ancient times but the modern scientific methods of forecasting started only in the middle of the nineteenth century. For weather forecasting most important component is observations. In addition to the conventional instrumental observations, RADAR and satellite observations are used for weather forecasting. There exist several types of weather forecasts for various users as well as many techniques of forecasting like persistence, analogue, synoptic, statistical, Artificial Neural Network, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, NWP.  Nowadays, guidance from NWP models is used for weather forecasting worldwide including in India. With the advancement of the science of meteorology and High Performance Computing (HPC) systems, the skills of the forecasts have improved considerably but a lot more has to be achieved.