1st Winter South Asian Climate Outlook Forum and Climate Services Users Forum for Agriculture

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has taken a lead to host the inception session of the winter SASCOF (WinSASCOF) scheduled to be held at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India during Oct 14-15, 2015. WMO and the Regional Integrated Multi-hazard Earlywarning System for Asia and Africa (RIMES) shall support WinSASCOF through funds available from the Government of Canada.

Agriculture sector is one of the most important users of climate information and winter rains in south Asia play a crucial role in enhancing productivity of the sector. WinSASCOF will feature “Climate Services User Forum for Agriculture (CSUF-Ag1)” to be held during Oct 15-16, 2015 conjointly. CSUF-Ag1 shall bring together experts in seasonal predictions and operational users agricultural departments of South Asian countries creating a platform for understanding seasonal climate information to make effective use to manage climate risks in the region. The session will recommend further needs of the sector in terms of customized products and tools to support decision-making.

The WinSASCOF-1 shall consider available seasonal prediction output from WMO Global Producing Centres (GPC’s) and the Lead Centre for LRF MME together with presentation of country forecasts and discussions.

As this year’s WinSASCOF will be the first meeting, it will examine distinctive features of the winter climate of South Asia from an operational seasonal forecasting perspective and prioritize climate information products. This meeting shall assess and make recommendations on existing regional capability, sustenance, quality and standards, training and user requirements in the region.