IMD introduced, customised location specific forecast for offshore & onshore industries, airports, ports, Indian Air Force, Indian Oil corporation, Nuclear Power Corporation of India, marine weather forecast, cyclone forecast, heat wave forecast, thunderstorm forecast in text, graphic & GIS platform with socio-economic attributes, hazard & impact modelling as well as risk assessment in 2021.
New Delhi:The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has identified areas vulnerable to various weather hazards, including extreme rainfall, snowfall, hailstorms, thunderstorms in the country.
The Government has been working to strengthen real-time monitoring systems, early warning systems, and sensor-based technology to detect, monitor, and provide timely early warnings for all types of severe weather events.
In recent years, the observational infrastructure and monitoring network over hilly regions has been significantly strengthened. In the western Himalayan States, Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) have been installed at ten locations—Srinagar, Jammu, Banihal Top, Mukteshwar, Surkanda Devi, Lansdowne, Leh, Kufri, Jot, and Murari Devi.
These radars are operational and support real-time monitoring and nowcasting (short-range forecasts of a few hours) of various extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall and snowfall.
DWR observations are available every ten minutes in the form of cloud imagery and wind velocity measurements within the radar’s coverage area. These observations support continuous monitoring and enable the issuance of nowcasts of heavy rainfall spells within short time frames (up to one hour).
A new Central Sector Scheme “Mission Mausam” has been also launched by Ministry of Earth Sciences(MoES) to further strengthen and upgrade the observational network for monitoring and forecasting severe weather events, with the goal of making Bharat a “Weather-ready and Climate- smart” nation with IMD as a major player.
At present, IMD is providing the nowcast for about 1206 stations, city forecasts for more than 1200 stations apart from district level and sectoral forecast and warning services throughout the country.
IMD is continuously working on upgrading and improving its seasonal prediction systems through advances in empirical, dynamical, and multi-model ensemble-based approaches.
IMD’s ongoing enhancements focus on refining model physics, improving data assimilation, increasing model resolution, integrating more robust ensemble techniques, and using AI/ML to deliver more accurate and reliable seasonal forecasts.
Currently, 47 radars are in operation across India, with 87% of the country’s total area under radar coverage. In the coming years, additional DWRs will be installed as per the requirement so as to bring the entire country under the radar coverage
IMD is not only catering to the Indian region but also provides Cyclone forecast and warning services to 13 north Indian ocean countries along with forecast and warning services to SAARC nations.
IMD also provides support for an integrated flood warning system for Mumbai and Chennai, flash flood guidance services for India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, winter fog forecasts for IGI airport, New Delhi etc.
IMD introduced, customised location specific forecast for offshore & onshore industries, airports, ports, Indian Air Force, Indian Oil corporation, Nuclear Power Corporation of India, marine weather forecast, cyclone forecast, heat wave forecast, thunderstorm forecast in text, graphic & GIS platform with socio-economic attributes, hazard & impact modelling as well as risk assessment in 2021.
Panchayat Mausam Seva was launched on 15 January 2024 for the Panchayat level dissemination of Agromet services.
Collaboration with power sector and provision of forecast enabled to improve power sector economy and harnessing of renewable energy.