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South Asian climate is influenced by both tropical (Oct-Dec) and temperate mid-latitude (Dec-Feb) circulation
systems during the winter months. The southern parts of South Asia, including peninsular India, Sri Lanka,
Maldives and southern coastal areas of Myanmar are influenced by the North East Monsoon (Reestablishment of prevalent north easterly trade-wind regime over South Asia associated with the southward
movement of the ITCZ), while extra-tropical activity dominated by “Western disturbances” influence the
northern parts of the region including Afghanistan, Pakistan, north India, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and
Myanmar. It is therefore necessary that seasonal forecasts for the winter season are issued at two different
times - one during September/October for the southern region and the other during November/December
for the northern region.
The crucial role of winter rains and the growing recognition of the benefits of SASCOFs in articulating and
sharing seasonal climate information have led to the need for regularly conducting winter SASCOFs. Winter
sessions of SASCOF’s were started in 2015 keeping in view the importance of winter seasonal climate to
key user sectors. The first winter SASCOF session was held in Oct 2015, at Chennai, Tamil Nadu India, and
most recently in Colombo, Sri Lanka in Sep 2018.
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