Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said the climate models it monitors indicate a possible return of the El Nino weather pattern, often linked to heavy rainfall and droughts, in the second half of 2012.

The last severe El Nino in 1998 killed more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damage to crops, infrastructure and mines in Australia and other parts of Asia.

Met chief says El Nino may affect showers
The monsoon is likely to hit the southern tip of the country on time in the first week of June, said India’s top weather department official on Thursday, a week before the official forecast, lifting hopes of better farm output for the third successive year and a chance to rein in food inflation.
“It will hit Kerala in the first week of June with an error window of 2-3 days,” said India Meteorological Department director general LS Rathore.

India’s Cabinet has given its approval to a “National Monsoon Mission,” which will equip the weather department with high-end computers, radars and scientific manpower to generate more detailed and accurate forecasts.

India’s current antiquated methods of forecasting the all-important monsoon rains is getting a re-vamp.

No other weather phenomenon generates as much excitement among policymakers and economists, given that it holds the key to farm output, a sector employing half the country’s workforce.

NEW DELHI: The rise in sea level by 1.29 millimetre every year along the Indian coastline has not caused any major erosion, science and technology and earth sciences minister Vilasrao Deshmukh informed the Rajya Sabha today. He said during Question Hour that the ministry of environment was conducting a study on the impact of the rising sea levels.

IMD, however, cautions that the monsoon may weaken in August-September due to atmospheric changes in the tropical Pacific
India is expected to have a normal monsoon for the third consecutive year, boosting prospects of good harvests and higher rural incomes.

India seemed headed for the third straight year of good monsoon with normal rainfall being predicted for the upcoming June-September season. The Met department will announce on Thursday the preliminary forecast for the four-month season that accounts for almost 90 per cent of India’s annual rainfall. Many scientists believe that the forecast is likely to be of a normal monsoon in the absence of any “extreme indications” of any of the factors that are known to be affecting the monsoon rainfall.

The country is likely to see normal monsoon this year, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) officials have said, dissipating fears of any drought-like conditions. All indicators point towards a “normal monsoon” just like last year, said a ministry official on Tuesday. There is no adverse atmospheric or oceanic condition that may lead to deviation of monsoon from the normal range in the country this year, MoES officials said indicating there is no fear of a repeat of the 2009 drought-like conditions.

Tremors: Residents and fishermen in coastal areas put on tsunami alert

Bangalore and most parts of Karnataka are located in the least (seismic) active zone in the country, according to the seismic map of Indian Meteorological Department. The country is divided into five different zones, depending on the seismic activities. While zone one has the least activity, zone five has the highest. Parts of Malnad and Coastal regions of the State fall in zone two and three.

New Delhi: It’s early days yet, but the first indications from within the country about this year’s monsoon are positive. A new climate model being developed under the government’s ambitious Monsoon Mission project has predicted above average rainfall for the season. The model, still being refined, is based on modern dynamical simulations and has been developed at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, in collaboration with several institutions in the country.