2016 was India’s warmest year ever recorded: India Meteorological Department

India Meteorological Department (IMD) in the third week of January 2017 announced that 2016 was India’s warmest year ever recorded since the documenting of meteorological records began in 1901.

The announcement was made in IMD’s Statement on Climate of India during 2016.

Key highlights of the statement

• During 2016, the average annual mean surface temperature in India was +0.91 degree Celsius above the average recorded between 1961 and 1990.

• During the year, the weather conditions in India were in line with warmer than normal climate observed globally.

• Before 2016, the warmest year on record was recorded in 2009 when annual mean temperature was +0.77 degree Celsius above average.

• 2016 was warmer than 2015 by 0.240 Celsius.

• India averaged seasonal mean temperatures during the winter season (January and February) and the pre-monsoon season (March to May) mainly accounted for the above normal annual temperature for 2016.

• The 2016 annual rainfall over the country as a whole was 91 per cent of Long Period Average (LPA) value for the period 1951-2000.

• The annual rainfall deficiency was mainly due to the significantly below average rainfall during the winter and northeast monsoon seasons.

About India Meteorological Department

• The India Meteorological Department is an agency of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Indian Government.

• It is the main agency responsible for meteorological observations, weather forecasting and seismology.

• It is headquartered in New Delhi.

• It operates hundreds of observation stations across India and Antarctica.

• It is one of the six Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

• It forecasts, named and distributes warnings for tropical cyclones in the Northern Indian Ocean region, including the Malacca Straits, the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.