Verb

Infinitive to forecast

Third person singular forecasts

Simple past forecast or forecasted

Past participle [[forecast or forecasted]]

Present participle forecasting

to forecast (third-person singular simple present forecasts, present participle forecasting, simple past and past participle forecast or forecasted)

1. To estimate how a condition will be in the future.

Noun

Singular forecast

Plural forecasts

forecast (plural forecasts)

1. An estimation of a future condition.
2. A prediction of the weather.

   • What's the forecast for tomorrow?

Forecasting is the process of estimation in unknown situations. Prediction is a similar, but more general term. Both can refer to estimation of time series, cross-sectional or longitudinal data. Usage can differ between areas of application: for example in hydrology, the terms "forecast" and "forecasting" are sometimes reserved for estimates of values at certain specific future times, while the term "prediction" is used for more general estimates, such as the number of times floods will occur over a long period. Risk and uncertainty are central to forecasting and prediction. Forecasting is used in the practice of Customer Demand Planning in every day business forecasting for manufacturing companies. The discipline of demand planning, also sometimes referred to as supply chain forecasting, embraces both statistical forecasting and a consensus process. An important, albeit often ignored aspect of forecasting, is the relationship it holds with planning. Forecasting can be described as what the future will look like, whereas planning predicts what the future should look like. [1]

Forecasting is commonly used in discussion of time-series data.

Categories of forecasting methods