Traditional Methods of Weather Forecasting

Insights about nature are a part of folklore in various regions of India. Our ancestors developed techniques of forecasting local weather conditions from observations of their immediate natural environment. The knowledge gained by observations over centuries passing from generations in the rural communities of the Thar desert are often still the fairly reliable guide to sowing operations and critical availability of water in the an arid terrain.

With the support from Ministry of Culture, Government of India, the NHD of Intach has documented the available knowledge on traditional techniques of predicting arrival or failure of monsoons in the district of Jaisalmer. It is our hope that in time the outcomes of such forecasts would be merged with scientific forecasts and this work may help to keep the traditional knowledge alive.