1. The tradition of forecasting the monsoon season in India is older than 100 years.
2. After the famine of 1877, H.F. Blanford, the founder of IMD had made such a prediction for the first time taking the snowfall in the Himalayas as a parameter for this prediction.
3. In the decade of the 1930’s, the then director of IMD, Sir Gilbert Walker had underlined the relationship between various worldwide climatic factors and the Indian monsoon and based on available observations and previous recordings related to this relationship, he put forth a hypothesis regarding the nature of the monsoon.
4. With the initiative of Dr. Vasantrao Govarikar in the decade of the 1990’s, a monsoon model based upon 16 worldwide climatic parameters was developed. This model was in use from 1990 to 2002.
5. Presently, new models are being developed at IITM. Work is in progress at two levels, namely designing new models and developing new technology.
6. The main focus is on the development of the radar system and satellite technology.
