Skymet Weather Services

Last updated
Skymet Weather Services
Company type Private
Founded2003
FounderJatin Singh
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
ServicesWeather monitoring & forecasting
UAV & Remote sensing
Crop surveillance
Website www.skymetweather.com

Skymet Weather Services is a private Indian company that provides weather forecasting services.

Contents

Skymet was the first private sector entity to provide weather forecasts and weather graphics to the Indian media in 2003. [1] Skymet was founded by Jatin Singh [2] in 2003 and is headquartered in Noida, India. [3] Today Skymet provides weather service and graphics to most of Indian media companies in India, such as Zee News, Aaj Tak, Sahara Samay, Mint, Times Now, ABP and The Hindu. Its other clients include Reliance Infrastructure Ltd,Thomson Reuters and North Delhi Power Ltd. Skymet also provides weather service information to most of the major insurance companies in India, power sector and agriculture sector. [4] Skymet provides wind and solar forecast for different renewable energy companies by running its own meso and micro scale NWP. Skymet along with few NGOs are closely working to improve the sustenance of farmer in different remote blocks of many states in India. Skymet also caters to different companies for marine weather forecast.

Skymet also recently launched a weather website that allows a common user to get accurate weather information for free. It also launched an android app and App Store (iOS) that gives weather information. Despite availability of many such weather app in Google Play store, Skymet app was seen as the first made in India app that provides weather information in multiple regional languages. [5] When cyclone Phailin hit the Eastern coastal regions of India, Skymet became a referring point for forecast along with international websites like Accuweather. [6] Skymet has developed many software tools for weather and climate decision support systems.

Funding

Weather forecasting services provider Skymet Weather Services raised $4.5 million in Series B funding from multiple investors led by Asia Pacific, the investment arm of UK-based media firm Daily Mail and General Trust plc (DMGT) and Godrej group-backed existing investor Omnivore Partners. [7]

Skymet has received one round of funding so far from Omnivore Partners through a Rs.250 Cr ($50 Mn) fund that was launched with Godrej Agrovet, the diversified agribusiness arm of the Godrej group being the anchor investor. Omnivore reportedly picked up a 33 percent stake in Skymet and Mark Kahn, partner of Omnivore Partners joined the board of Skymet Services. [8]

Success

Skymet has reportedly predicted Indian monsoons during 2012, 2013 and 2014 before the India Meteorological Department and released their report in a press conference. [9]

Failure

Indian Meteorological Department correctly predicted a second below-normal monsoon year in a row whereas Skymet's claims of a normal monsoon for 2015 failed to deliver. Also same thing happened in 2019. [9]

Criticism

Skymet was criticized by Director General of IMD, Dr L.S. Rathore for taking on IMD over forecasting monsoons in India in 2013. In an interview given to Business Standard India Dr. Rathore said "Skymet needs to be mature in their prediction. [9]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology</span> Scientific institution in Pune, Maharashtra

The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) is a scientific institution based in Pune, Maharashtra, India for expanding research in the tropical Indian Ocean with special reference to monsoon meteorology, and air-sea interaction of South Asian climate. It is an Autonomous Institute of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 North Indian Ocean cyclone season</span> North Indian Ocean tropical cyclone season

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">1993 North Indian Ocean cyclone season</span> Cyclone season in the North Indian Ocean in 1993

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 North Indian Ocean cyclone season</span> North Indian Ocean tropical cyclone season

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 North Indian Ocean cyclone season</span> North Indian Ocean tropical cyclone season

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 North Indian Ocean cyclone season</span> North Indian Ocean tropical cyclone season

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 North Indian Ocean cyclone season</span> North Indian Ocean tropical cyclone season

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 North Indian Ocean cyclone season</span> North Indian Ocean tropical cyclone season

The 2016 North Indian Ocean cyclone season was an event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation. It was the deadliest season since 2010, killing more than 400 people. The season was an average one, seeing four named storms, with one further intensifying into a very severe cyclonic storm. The first named storm, Roanu, developed on 19 May while the season's last named storm, Vardah, dissipated on 18 December. The North Indian Ocean cyclone season has no official bounds, but cyclones tend to form between April and December, with the two peaks in May and November. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northern Indian Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uma Charan Mohanty</span> Indian meteorologist

Uma Charan Mohanty is an Indian meteorologist and an emeritus professor at the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar. He is the president of Odisha Bigyan Academy and is known for his researches on the Indian summer monsoon. Besides being an elected fellow of the Indian Geophysical Union, he is also an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz. Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 North Indian Ocean cyclone season</span> North Indian Ocean tropical cyclone season

The 2020 North Indian Ocean cyclone season was the costliest North Indian Ocean cyclone season on record, mostly due to the devastating Cyclone Amphan. The North Indian Ocean cyclone season has no official bounds, but cyclones tend to form between April and November, with peaks in late April to May and October to November. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northern Indian Ocean. The season began on May 16 with the designation of Depression BOB 01 in the Bay of Bengal, which later became Amphan. Cyclone Amphan was the strongest storm in the Bay of Bengal in 21 years and would break Nargis of 2008's record as the costliest storm in the North Indian Ocean. The season concluded with the dissipation of Cyclone Burevi on December 5. Overall, the season was slightly above average, seeing the development of five cyclonic storms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season</span> North Indian Ocean tropical cyclone season

The 2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season was an average season, the North Indian Ocean cyclone season has no official bounds, but cyclones tend to form between April and December, peaking between May and November. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northern Indian Ocean. The season began on April 2, when a depression designated as BOB 01 was formed in the north Andaman Sea and quickly made landfall in Myanmar. The basin remained quiet for over a month before Cyclone Tauktae formed. It rapidly intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm before making landfall in Gujarat, become the strongest storm ever to strike that state since the 1998 Gujarat cyclone. Later that month, BOB 02 formed and later strengthened into Cyclone Yaas. Yaas rapidly intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm before making landfall in northwestern Odisha. The season's strongest tropical cyclone was Cyclone Tauktae, with maximum wind speeds of 185 km/h (115 mph) and a minimum barometric pressure of 950 hPa (28.05 inHg).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 North Indian Ocean cyclone season</span> Tropical cyclone season

The 2022 North Indian Ocean cyclone season was an event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation. It was an above-average season in terms of depressions and average in terms of deep depressions, but slightly below average in terms of cyclonic storms. It was also the least deadly North Indian Ocean cyclone season since 1988, according to official data. The season's strongest tropical cyclone was Cyclone Asani, with maximum wind speeds of 100 km/h and a minimum barometric pressure of 982 hPa. The North Indian Ocean cyclone season has no official bounds, but cyclones tend to form between April and December, with the peak from May to November. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northern Indian Ocean.

References

  1. Meet Jatin Singh, the ‘weather man’ behind Skymet | Firstpost
  2. The weather man behind Skymet
  3. The weather man behind Skymet | Entrepreneurindia.in
  4. Skymet Weather Services: Jatin Singh provides services to climate-dependent sectors like agriculture, energy - Economic Times Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Skymet - Made In India Weather Application | Appdunia
  6. Cyclone hits homecoming
  7. In a dodgy monsoon season, it’s raining funds on Indian weather forecaster Skymet
  8. DealCurry.com : Omnivore Capital Buys 33% In Weather Forecaster Skymet Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  9. 1 2 3 Skymet may end up stealing IMD’s thunder - Livemint Archived 2013-11-27 at archive.today