The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) will soon add three Doppler radar stations in order to improve its weather prediction capabilities and these will take the total stations to 27.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is also installing 11 more stations on its own including one in Dundigal station near Hyderabad and this will further improve the prediction capabilities as information would come from multiple sources, said Indian Meteorological Department Director-General K.J. Ramesh. These stations will come up over next two to three years.
Mr. Ramesh speaking to reporters at the Weather Monitoring Station here on Thursday said the data from two INSAT satellites along with the Doppler Radar Station network will improve coverage and the department would be equipped with data from different sources every 30 minutes.
On the phenomena of increased intensity of rains, the DG attributed it to global warming and India was not the lone country affected. In fact, every country including the USA and Europe is witnessing such abnormal rains. He said that intensified rains will be the order of the day and people have to deal with such heavy rains with better urban management techniques.
Mr. Ramesh said that rainy days will come down in future but the quantum of rain may not go down drastically due to the heavy downpours. Technology is available now to predict such rains over a region but not finding out specific places receiving such downpours.
Monsoon prediction on target
Referring to the monsoon spread in the country, he said that the IMD predicted about 96% of normal rain this season and updated it to 98% midway through. As of now it has been about 95% and variation of about 4% is normal.
The actual rainfall distribution has been quite normal except Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, which have deficit. In fact, Kerala and Karnataka saw good rainfall compared to last year. The sowing figures of the Government show that only six lakh acres less have seen sowing compared to last year. Moreover, the water level in reservoirs has been about 87% of the total capacity and all these indicate a good monsoon.
Working with GHMC
The IMD Director General said that the local weather department will work closely with the GHMC on weather monitoring systems. Similar system is in place in Mumbai. He said that Karnataka has been able to install telemetry network in every panchayat from where data is collected with access to senior officials including the District Collector so that they can plan in advance.
