From unlikely beginnings to meteorological milestones: S. Balachandran’s 33-year journey with IMD

Balachandran served in various capacities in the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for 33 years before retiring in February, 2025, as Additional Director General of Meteorology, Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai.

Meteorology was originally not on S. Balachandran’s career radar, but once he set foot on this path, there was no looking back. Mr. Balachandran served in various capacities in the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for 33 years before retiring in February, 2025, as Additional Director General of Meteorology, Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai.

In his career spanning over three decades, Mr. Balachandran held multiple roles, from instrumentation and research to working in operational units of the IMD in various places. Hailing from Coimbatore, Mr. Balachandran wanted a career in physics and joined as research assistant, Central Soil and Material Research Station, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti. He later joined IMD Pune as operational forecaster in 1992.

“I did not plan to be in the IMD or the shift from Pune to Chennai,” said Mr. Balachandran, who had been a faculty and had travelled extensively to install automatic rain gauges and automatic weather stations from Gujarat to Pamban and Vedaranyam. During his stint divided between Pune and Chennai, he gained experience in various sections, including data collection and aviation forecasting. His colleagues describe him as unassuming, down-to-earth, and a strong academic.

The year 2016 held challenges as he took over as Director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, after S.R. Ramanan. Recalling Cyclone Roanu, which formed in May 2016 and impacted the Kanniyakumari district, he said: “Initially, the government officials did not believe the forecast. The next day, the RMC was well-appreciated for the precise forecast. The same year, we handled the December Cyclone Vardah.”

From then on, Mr. Balachandran took challenges head on, be it the need for strengthening the observational network, pressures from social media or COVID 19 pandemic, or forecast on intense rainfall in a short span.

He recollects spending many days in offices tracking Northeast monsoon cyclones and disseminating information to government authorities and media round the clock. “I went to the office on all days during the pandemic lockdown as Deputy Director General of Meteorology. We continued the process to find site, install X band radar in NIOT Pallikaranai then,” he said.

Mr. Balachandran regards indigenously renovated S-band doppler weather radar, launch of more observational networks, signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Southern Railway for ARGs as some of the projects close to heart.