(April to May) including heat waves were issued by the India Meteorological Department.
      Improved Weather and Cyclone Predictions
           The quality of weather services has shown appreciable improvements during the past three
      years. Specifically, noticeable improvements were achieved in prediction skills of heavy rainfall
      and tropical cyclones such as Phailin, Hudhud and Vardah and the heavy rainfall events in
      Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Chennai. For the cyclone, Vardah, which had caused
      severe damages in the city of Chennai and neighbourhood, accurate predictions were provided
      almost three days in advance, helping to save thousands of lives. The loss of lives during the last
      three years due to tropical cyclones has reduced to less than hundred as compared to the
      thousands during the previous decade.
      Agro-Meteorological Advisory Services
           The Ministry in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
      provides the Agromet Advisory Services (AAS) for the benefit of farmers. Farmers make use of
      these services for planning the operations like sowing, irrigation, application of fertilizer and
      pesticide, harvest and protection of crops from weather disasters. The services carried out at 130
      agro-met zones (cluster of 4-6 districts) now have been successfully extended to the district level
      and operated across 608 districts of the country. Currently, about 21.69 million farmers are
      receiving crop specific agro-meteorological advisories in vernacular languages.
      Forecasts for Heat and Cold Waves
           With global warming, surface air temperatures are expected to further increase and
      frequency of heat waves may also increase. To provide adequate warnings about heat waves and
      associated health hazards, MoES for the first time started issuing forecasts for heat waves over
      the country. A few state governments like Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha
      have initiated state action plans based on these forecasts during the hot weather season, which
      could help them to warn people in advance about the occurrence of heat waves and thus saving
      their lives. MoES has also taken initiative to develop such heat wave action plans with other state
      governments.
      Ocean Services: Technology and Observations
      Potential Fishery Zone (PFZ) Advisories
           The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) provides PFZ
      advisories to 2.75 lakh fishermen on a daily basis to help them to easily locate the areas of
      abundant fish in the ocean.
      Ocean Forecasts
           Ocean state forecasts (forecasts of waves, currents, sea surface temperature, etc.) to fisher
      folk, shipping industry, oil and natural gas industry, navy, coast guard and other stakeholders
      have improved considerably. Oil spill advisories are being provided to facilitate the indication of
      eco-sensitive zones, potential fishing zones, fishing avoidance zone during the event of oil spill.
      The ocean state forecasts were also provided before and during the launch day of Re-usable
      Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD) of the Indian Space Research
      Organisation (ISRO).