India too diverse
Keeping aside the obvious lack of cooperation from the IMD, there are other problems that news channels face in this area. Oke says, "The reality is that with global weather forecasts we're always pushed for time. We have the same time often allowed for a national forecast, to try and cover weather for several continents. A regular request in our Email box is for us to cover specific cities and regions. If we were able to please everybody, the weather forecast would be over an hour long!"

India has specific problems, being a large country with diverse climatic conditions. Says Sharma, "A common grouse that we receive from a lot of people is that weather information is not provided for all the regions of the country. But it is really not possible to do that. It gets too cumbersome."

Star News CEO Uday Shankar

Shankar, on the other hand, says, "The IMD is not able to predict accurately if there will be rain in any region of the country and hence their predictions are not credible. It has to be kept in mind that India has a very long coastline and a large section of the population reside there. The lives of these people largely depend on the information provided by the IMD."

Adds Naqvi, "We rely on the IMD completely for any kind of information on the weather. If they spruce up their resources and upgrade the technology, then it will be better for news channels and also for people who look at the weather segment on a regular basis. Accurate forecasts would also help in avoiding crisis situations."

So what hinders accurate weather forecasting? BBC's Lane feels there are issues over accuracy of data, performance of equipment and cost of services.

Apart from the infrastructure, there are also problems that reporters face. Says Oke, "We're a very small team. When a major weather story also becomes a major news story, we are in great demand. Creating graphics, finding fresh video, making animations and providing fresh information and insight is tough, especially when there's only one weather anchor on duty."

Equipment problems or failure of data to arrive on time are also some of the main challenges that channels face.