India wheat: yield nowcast
A winter (rabi) crop, sown in November and cut in March and April, almost all irrigated: March heat is the main risk. Seven states of weather and satellite data, benchmarked against USDA's WASDE.
Explore
Every forecast, season by season
Pick a harvest year, a forecast date and a region. Everything updates: the forecast with its 80% interval, how the view moved through the season, and how this forecast date has scored over all seasons.
From orbit NOAA satellites
The crop, seen from space
Weekly vegetation health over the wheat area, 4 km pixels masked to wheat fields. Shown for context: the nowcast for this origin does not rely on them (here they did not add accuracy). All origins on the satellite page →
This season against every season since 2000
VHI combines greenness (VCI) and heat stress (TCI); below 40 the crop is under stress.
Every season, week by week
Red: stress. Blue: healthy canopy.
Does the satellite see the yield?
Correlation r = -0.02 over 15 seasons.
Benchmark
Against USDA's WASDE
USDA's WASDE is ahead of the nowcast at every date. By May, with harvest results in, USDA is ahead (3.0% vs 6.7%).
Error by WASDE month
% of the final USDA PSD figure.
May forecasts, year by year
Below zero: the forecast was under the final crop.