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In the present study, a model output statistics (MOS) guidance model was developed by using the neural network technique for a bias-corrected rainfall forecast. The model was developed over the Indian window (0– $$40{^{\circ }}\hbox {N}$$ and 60– $$100{^{\circ }}\hbox {E}$$ ) by using the observed and global forecast system (GFS) T-1534 model output (up to 5 days) at a $$0.125{^{\circ }} \times \,0.125{^{\circ }}$$ regular grid during the summer monsoon (June–September) 2016. The skill of the developed MOS model forecast against the observed $$0.125{^{\circ }} \times 0.125{^{\circ }}$$ grid rainfall data is obtained for the summer monsoon (June–September) 2017. The skill of the MOS model rainfall forecast is found to show good improvement over the T-1534 model’s direct forecast over the Indian window. In general, the T-1534 model’s direct forecast shows high skill but the forecast obtained by using the MOS model shows better skill than the direct model’s forecast, although a major improvement is seen for the Day 1 forecast at the national level. So the skill of the bias-corrected rainfall forecast by using the MOS guidance and the T-1534 model output is high and has the potential of being used as an operational forecast over the Indian region.

A new approach to ensemble forecasting of rainfall over India based on daily outputs of four operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) models in the medium-range timescale (up to 5 days) is proposed in this study. Four global models, namely ECMWF, JMA, GFS and UKMO available on real-time basis at India Meteorological Department, New Delhi, are used simultaneously with adequate weights to obtain a multi-model ensemble (MME) technique. In this technique, weights for each NWP model at each grid point are assigned on the basis of unbiased mean absolute error between the bias-corrected forecast and observed rainfall time series of 366 daily data of 3 consecutive southwest monsoon periods (JJAS) of 2008, 2009 and 2010. Apart from MME, a simple ensemble mean (ENSM) forecast is also generated and experimented. The prediction skill of MME is examined against observed and corresponding outputs of each constituent model during monsoon 2011. The inter-comparison reveals that MME is able to provide more realistic forecast of rainfall over Indian monsoon region by taking the strength of each constituent model. It has been further found that the weighted MME technique has higher skill in predicting daily rainfall compared to ENSM and individual member models. RMSE is found to be lowest in MME forecasts both in magnitude and area coverage. This indicates that fluctuations of day-to-day errors are relatively less in the MME forecast. The inter-comparison of domain-averaged skill scores for different rainfall thresholds further clearly demonstrates that the MME algorithm improves slightly above the ENSM and member models.

The output from Global Forecasting System (GFS) T574L64 operational at India Meteorological Department (IMD), New Delhi is used for obtaining location specific quantitative forecast of maximum and minimum temperatures over India in the medium range time scale. In this study, a statistical bias correction algorithm has been introduced to reduce the systematic bias in the 24–120 hour GFS model location specific forecast of maximum and minimum temperatures for 98 selected synoptic stations, representing different geographical regions of India. The statistical bias correction algorithm used for minimizing the bias of the next forecast is Decaying Weighted Mean (DWM), as it is suitable for small samples. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the skill of Direct Model Output (DMO) and Bias Corrected (BC) GFS for location specific forecast of maximum and minimum temperatures over India. The performance skill of 24–120 hour DMO and BC forecast of GFS model is evaluated for all the 98 synoptic stations during summer (May-August 2012) and winter (November 2012–February 2013) seasons using different statistical evaluation skill measures. The magnitude of Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) for BC GFS forecast is lower than DMO during both summer and winter seasons. The BC GFS forecasts have higher skill score as compared to GFS DMO over most of the stations in all day-1 to day-5 forecasts during both summer and winter seasons. It is concluded from the study that the skill of GFS statistical BC forecast improves over the GFS DMO remarkably and hence can be used as an operational weather forecasting system for location specific forecast over India.

Performance of national centers for environmental prediction based global forecast system (GFS) T574/L64 and GFS T382/L64 over Indian region has been evaluated for the summer monsoon season of 2011. The real-time model outputs are generated daily at India Meteorological Department, New Delhi for the forecasts up to 7 days. Verification of rainfall forecasts has been carried out against observed rainfall analysis. Performance of the model is also examined in terms of lower tropospheric wind circulation, vertical structure of specific humidity and precipitable water content. Case study of a monsoon depression is also illustrated. Results obtained show that, in general, both the GFS T382 and T574 forecasts are skillful to capture climatologically heavy rainfall regions. However, the accuracy in prediction of location and magnitude of rainfall fluctuates considerably. The verification results, at the spatial scale of 50 km resolution, in a regional spatial scale and country as a whole, in terms of continuous skill score, time series and categorical statistics, have demonstrated superiority of GFS T574 against T382 over Indian region. Both the model shows bias of lower tropospheric drying and upper tropospheric moistening. A bias of anti-cyclonic circulation in the lower tropospheric level lay over the central India, where rainfall as well as precipitable water content shows negative bias. Considerable differences between GFS T574 and T382 are noticed in the structure of model bias in terms of lower tropospheric wind circulation, vertical structure of specific humidity and precipitable water contents. The magnitude of error for these parameters increases with forecast lead time in both GFS T574 and T382. The results documented are expected to be useful to the forecasters, monsoon researchers and modeling community.

India Meteorological Department has implemented district level medium range rainfall forecast system applying multimodel ensemble technique, making use of model outputs of state-of-the-art global models from the five leading global NWP centres. The pre-assigned grid point weights on the basis of anomaly correlation coefficients (CC) between the observed values and forecast values are determined for each constituent model at the resolution of 0.25 ◦ ×0.25 ◦ utilizing two season datasets (1 June–30 September, 2007 and 2008) and the multimodel ensemble forecasts (day-1 to day-5 forecasts) are generated at the same resolution on a real-time basis. The ensemble forecast fields are then used to prepare forecasts for each district, taking the average value of all grid points falling in a particular district. In this paper, we describe the development strategy of the technique and performance skill of the system during summer monsoon 2009. The study demonstrates the potential of the system for improving rainfall forecasts at five days time scale over Indian region. Districtwise performance of the ensemble rainfall forecast reveals that the technique, in general, is capable of providing reasonably good forecast skill over most states of the country, particularly over the states where the monsoon systems are more dominant.

The prediction of Asian summer monsoon rainfall on various space and time scales is still a difficult task. Compared to the mid-latitudes, proportional improvement in the skill in prediction of monsoon rainfall in medium range has been less in recent years. Global models and data assimilation techniques are being further improved for monsoons and the tropics. However, multi-model ensemble (MME) forecasting is gaining popularity, as it has the potential to provide more information for practical forecasting in terms of making a consensus forecast and reducing the model uncertainties. As major centres are exchanging the model output in near real time, MME is a viable, inexpensive, way for enhancing the forecast skill. Apart from a simple ensemble mean, the MME predictions of large-scale monsoon precipitation in the medium range was carried out during the 2009 monsoon at NCMRWF/MoES, India. The neural network weights were obtained and a neural network was trained based upon forecast data from four global models for the 2007 and 2008 monsoons in order to develop the multi-model ensemble system. The skill score for country and sub-regions, indicates that a multi-model ensemble forecast has a higher skill than individual model forecasts and also higher skill than the simple ensemble mean in general. Although the skill of the global models falls beyond day 3, a significant improvement could be seen by employing the MME technique up to day 5. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society

Realistic simulation/prediction of the Asian summer monsoon rainfall on various space–time scales is a challenging scientific task. Compared to mid-latitudes, a proportional skill improvement in the prediction of monsoon rainfall in the medium range has not happened in recent years. Global models and data assimilation techniques are being improved for monsoon/tropics. However, multi-model ensemble (MME) forecasting is gaining popularity, as it has the potential to provide more information for practical forecasting in terms of making a consensus forecast and handling model uncertainties. As major centers are exchanging model output in near real-time, MME is a viable inexpensive way of enhancing the forecasting skill and information content. During monsoon 2008, on an experimental basis, an MME forecasting of large-scale monsoon precipitation in the medium range was carried out in real-time at National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), India. Simple ensemble mean (EMN) giving equal weight to member models, bias-corrected ensemble mean (BCEMn) and MME forecast, where different weights are given to member models, are the products of the algorithm tested here. In general, the aforementioned products from the multi-model ensemble forecast system have a higher skill than individual model forecasts. The skill score for the Indian domain and other sub-regions indicates that the BCEMn produces the best result, compared to EMN and MME. Giving weights to different models to obtain an MME product helps to improve individual member models only marginally. It is noted that for higher rainfall values, the skill of the global model rainfall forecast decreases rapidly beyond day-3, and hence for day-4 and day-5, the MME products could not bring much improvement over member models. However, up to day-3, the MME products were always better than individual member models.

During the summer monsoon (1 June to 30 September) 2007, real-time district level rainfall forecasts in short-range time scale were generated for Indian region applying multimodel ensemble technique. The pre-assigned grid point weights on the basis of correlation coefficients (CC) between the observed values and forecast values are determined for each constituent model at the resolution of 0.5° × 0.5° utilizing two seasons datasets (1 June to 30 September, 2005 and 2006), and the multimodel ensemble forecasts (day 1 and day 2 forecasts) are generated at the same resolution on a real-time basis. The ensemble forecast fields are then used to prepare forecasts for each district taking the average value of all grid points falling in a particular district. In this paper we examined the performance skill of the multimodel ensemble-based real-time district level short-range forecast of rainfall. It has clearly emerged from the results that the multimodel ensemble technique reported in this study is superior to each ensemble member. District wise performance of the ensemble rainfall forecast reveals that the technique, in general, is capable of providing reasonably good forecast skill over most districts of the country, particularly over the districts where the monsoon systems are dominant. Though the procedure shows appreciable skill to predict occurrence or non-occurrence of rainfall at the district level, it always underestimates rainfall amount, particularly in heavy rainfall events. Possible reasons of this failure may be due to model bias and poor data assimilation procedure.

The high-resolution global ensemble prediction system was implemented at IITM (Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology) in June 2018 and handed over to India Meteorological Department (IMD) for operational running. During the Tropical Cyclone (TC) season over the North Indian Ocean, real time forecasts of ensemble tracks, intensity and strike probability of TCs are provided to IMD. This paper evaluates the skill of the model in predicting TCs during 2018, 2019 and two cases in 2020. A total of 13 cases are considered and various skill scores are calculated for the TC predictions. This study evaluates and highlights the importance of the Ensemble Prediction System for Tropical Cyclone forecasting. The key finding from this analysis is that, the higher skill of ensemble prediction system based on GEFS at longer lead time compared with the deterministic prediction. This is particularly beneficial for operational forecaster for issuing early warnings.