Overview
- The Centre confirmed 200 new Automatic Weather Stations for Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune in 2026, with 50 in each city and the first 20 going up in Delhi this month ahead of a formal Phase II launch by April.
- The dense metro network is designed to capture micro‑climate variations at neighborhood scale to improve predictions of heatwaves, cloudbursts and urban flooding.
- Leaders outlined a parallel push to boost ocean and coastal observations for seasonal outlooks, noting current reliance on foreign data sources and that the United States supplies about half of ocean observations.
- IMD plans further capacity upgrades including about 50 additional Doppler radars by 2026 on top of the existing 46 and the creation of 10 centres of excellence for research and forecasting.
- Officials report sustained gains in forecast skill over recent years, including 40–50% improvement overall, roughly 35–40% better cyclone track accuracy, and monthly or seasonal errors reduced to about 2–2.5%.