The weather suddenly seems impossible to predict. Whether in urban or rural areas, freak events have been upturning everyday life and causing devastation like never witnessed before. Ferocious downpours, scorching heat waves, imploding glaciers and crumbling mountainsides have wrought havoc and made a mockery of standard disaster management. 

No one is quite sure anymore of what’s coming. There is a need now to rethink what is known and plan for the unpredictable. It is possible by going beyond mere meteorology to pool expertise drawn from geophysics, hydrology, geology and ecology. Much more savvy and alertness are needed in governance whether in cities and villages in the plains or high up in the fragile mountain states.