Skymet Weather Services is a private

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n company that provides

weather forecasting Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia a ...

services. Skymet was the first private sector entity to provide weather forecasts and weather graphics to the Indian media in 2003. Skymet was founded by Jatin Singh in 2003 and is headquartered in

Noida, India Noida, short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, is a planned city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Noida is a satellite city of Delhi and is a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) o ...

. Today Skymet provides weather service and graphics to most of Indian media companies in India, such as

Zee News Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group. It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation. The channel has been involved in several controversies and has ...

Aaj Tak ''Aaj Tak'' () is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by TV Today Network, part of the New Delhi-based media conglomerate Living Media group (India Today Group) Aaj Tak HD On 14 December 2018, Aaj Tak launched India's first Hindi h ...

Sahara Samay Sahara India Pariwar (''pariwar'' being Hindi for "family") is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The group operates business sectors such as finance, infrastructure & housing, real estate, sports, power, ma ...

, Mint,

Times Now Times Now is an English news channel in India owned and operated by The Times Group. The channel launched on 23 January 2006 in partnership with Reuters. It is a pay television throughout India. Until 2016, it was India's most popular and the m ...

, ABP and

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

. Its other clients include Reliance Infrastructure Ltd,

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...

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. 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 Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of de ...

and

App Store (iOS) The App Store is an app store platform, developed and maintained by Apple Inc., for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS Software Deve ...

that gives weather information. Despite availability of many such weather app in

Google Play store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sys ...

, Skymet app was seen as the first made in India app that provides weather information in multiple regional languages. When

cyclone Phailin Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Phailin (; th, ไพลิน, translit=Phịlin, lit=sapphire) was the most intense tropical cyclone to make landfall in India since the 1999 Odisha cyclone until Cyclone Amphan hit West Bengal in May 2020. The sy ...

hit the Eastern coastal regions of India, Skymet became a referring point for forecast along with international websites like

Accuweather AccuWeather Inc. is an American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services worldwide. AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Pennsylvania State University graduate student working on a master's degree i ...

. Skymet has developed many software tools for weather and climate decision support systems.

Funding

Weather forecasting services provide
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 Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is a British multinational media company, the owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and several other titles. The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman and controlling shareholder of the company. The head office is ...

(DMGT) and

Godrej Godrej may refer to: * Godrej family, a wealthy business family in India **Ardeshir Godrej (1868–1936) ** Pirojsha Burjorji Godrej (1882–1972) **Adi Godrej (born 1942) **Nadir Godrej ** Jamshyd Godrej **Pirojsha Adi Godrej * Godrej Group, a grou ...

group-backed existing investor Omnivore Partners. 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 Godrej Agrovet Limited is an Indian company which operates in the animal feed and agribusiness sectors. The company, which is part of the highly diversified Godrej Group, had a turnover of around Rs. 3100 Cr (Rs. 31 billion) in FY 2012–13. ...

, 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.DealCurry.com : Omnivore Capital Buys 33% In Weather Forecaster Skymet
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Success

Skymet has reportedly predicted Indian monsoons during 2012, 2013 and 2014 before the

India Meteorological Department The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is an agency of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India. It is the principal agency responsible for meteorological observations, weather forecasting and seismology. IMD is headquarter ...

and released their report in a press conference.Skymet may end up stealing IMD’s thunder - Livemint

Failure

Indian Meteorological Department The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is an agency of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India. It is the principal agency responsible for meteorological observations, weather forecasting and seismology. IMD is headquarter ...

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.

Criticism

Skymet was criticized by Director General of IMD, Dr L.S. Rathore for taking on IMD over forecasting

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

s in India in 2013. In an interview given to

Business Standard India ''Business Standard'' is an Indian English-language daily edition newspaper published by Business Standard Private Limited, also available in Hindi. Founded in 1975, the newspaper covers the Indian economy, infrastructure, international busine ...

Dr. Rathore said "Skymet needs to be mature in their prediction.

References

{{Authority control Technology companies of India Meteorological companies