Extreme weather, monsoon and forecasting

22 Jul 2026Update

• The Bharat Forecast System now runs operationally at a horizontal resolution of 6 km, against about 12 km for the older global model, and issues forecasts for a cluster of panchayats rather than a district.
• The Department draws on 50 Doppler Weather Radars, with 29 C band, 45 X band and 12 S band radars to be added.
• Supercomputing capacity has grown to 28 petaflops with the Arka and Arunika systems. Warnings travel as Common Alerting Protocol alerts through the SACHET app.

PIB, 22 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: BHARAT FORECAST SYSTEM (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 22 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: IMPLEMENTATION OF MISSION MAUSAM (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 23 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: IMPLEMENTATION OF MISSION MAUSAM (opens in a new tab)

30 Jul 2026Update

• El Niño was weak in June and moderate in July. The mean error of the seasonal forecast fell to 2.2 per cent of the Long Period Average for 2021 to 2025, from 7.8 per cent for 2016 to 2020.

PIB, 30 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: IMPACT OF EL NINO ON INDIAN MONSOON (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 29 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: LONG RANGE FORECAST SYSTEM (opens in a new tab)

25 Jul 2026Update

• The monsoon covered the country on 9 July. A very heavy spell over Gujarat brought July to normal (215.5 mm against 215 mm), but the season deficit from 1 June to 24 July was still 16.1 per cent.

The Hindu, 25 Jul 2026: Gujarat deluge erases monsoon deficit, but overall rain still low (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 22 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: RAINFALL DEFICIT (opens in a new tab)

25 Jul 2026New subject

• Assam's eastern districts of Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat and Golaghat, which rarely flood on this scale, saw what the State called its worst floods in 60 years, triggered by a cloudburst in Nagaland's Mon district on 19 July. The toll reached 66 by late July, with more than 6.5 lakh people affected.
• Cloudbursts flooded Pahalgam on 11 July. Floods in south Gujarat killed 35 people, 29 of them in Navsari and Valsad, and closed highways in the industrial belt.
• Odisha was hit at the end of the month by a deep depression, having received 644.1 mm of rain in July against a normal of 327.4 mm.

Mains: embankments fail when a river changes course, so flood plain zoning matters more than more embankments.

The Indian Express, 25 Jul 2026: The 2026 monsoon floods hit places the flood maps did not expect, in Upper Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and south Gujarat (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 22 Jul 2026: Death toll rises to 41 as 'worst floods in 60 years' wreak havoc in Assam (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 20 Jul 2026: The 2026 monsoon floods hit places the flood maps did not expect, in Upper Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and south Gujarat (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 24 Jul 2026: The 2026 monsoon floods hit places the flood maps did not expect, in Upper Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and south Gujarat (opens in a new tab)

22 Jul 2026New subject

• The India Meteorological Department now issues impact based heatwave warnings at district level twice a day, stating the expected impact and the action to take.
• A Hazard and Vulnerability Atlas carries a Heatwave Vulnerability Index scored from 0 to 1 for every district.
• Heat wave is one of the hazards listed in the National Disaster Management Plan, and the 2019 guidelines require Heat Action Plans built on a vulnerability assessment.
• Also in news: Japan's weather agency coined a new category, kokushobi or "cruelly hot day", for temperatures above 40°C.

PIB, 22 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: HEATWAVE FORECASTING AND EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS AT THE DISTRICT LEVEL (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 27 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: COMMUNITY-LED TREE PLANTATION DRIVES (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 23 Jul 2026: Japan suffers heat 'disaster' as cities hit by 'cruelly hot' days (opens in a new tab)