IMD and Skymet differ on specifics of monsoon predictions, again

The big difference in this year's forecast by two agencies has been their inability to assess the rains in the last two months of monsoon season

For years, monsoon forecasting was a stolid subject of intense interest for determining India’s economic fortunes but rarely associated with public-private institutional rivalry. Since 2009, however, a competition of sorts has emerged between the government’s over 140-year-old Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and Skymet, India’s largest private weather forecaster.  
 

At the heart of this genteel competition is the reliability of the long-range forecast by each: both have come into question in the past few years. This year, the differences surfaced over the onset of the monsoon and when it would enter the lull and active phases. By September, however, the