Kerala has decided to source weather inputs from four private agencies in addition to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) during the coming monsoon season.
The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority has decided to access inputs provided by Skymet Weather Services, Windy, IBM Weather Company and Earth Networks ‘on a nomination basis as a pilot for one year’, according to an order issued by the Disaster Management Department. The government has granted the department permission to spend 10% of the funds from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for the services.
Land transferred
The KSDMA has pointed out that the IMD has only 15 automated weather stations in the State. The KSDMA had transferred land for establishing 73 more and the IMD has promised to set up 15 stations before the 2020 monsoon season. But they have not yet materialised. Moreover, ‘‘near-time data streaming is minimal to nil. Just about five stations are providing live data in the State.’’ With such an unreliable network, the State will be unable to issue localised alerts. The IMD is not issuing alerts even at the taluk level, according to the department.
In a letter on October 6, 2018 (shortly after the devastating floods of that year), the Disaster Management Department had conveyed
its readiness to provide 188 10m x 10m parcels of land for establishing more stations and requested the IMD to provide ‘‘hyper local, village-level rainfall and temperature warnings to the State by utilising high-end ensemble nested models customised for the State and data from the proposed dense network of observatories exclusively for the State.’’
Moreover, Kerala has been demanding the IMD to establish one more doppler radar on the Kozhikode-Wayanad district boundary. The IMD has only one such radar in the State and the second one, operated by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram, operates only on demand, the letter said.
But none of the requirements has been satisfied despite the State bearing the brunt of two devastating floods, KSDMA officials said adding there is nothing extraordinary in the State government deciding to source inputs from the private weather agencies. At least nine States are pursuing such programmes, they said.
In its latest order, the government has asked the KSDMA to derive a protocol for issuing warnings and alerts based on these inputs in consultation with the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), which has been utilising inputs from private weather services.
