Government sets up expert group to conduct study on thunderstorms

The expert group is mandated for development of different monitoring techniques and predictions for thunderstorms and the group is expected to come out with a better strategy by March 2019.
Image for representational image. (File |EPS)
Image for representational image. (File |EPS)

NEW DELHI: An expert group has been set up by the government for conducting a research on thunderstorms which often pose a serious problem to the people and the socio-economic sector, Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan said today.

Vardhan said in Lok Sabha that for many years, the India Meteorological Department and other institutes have been involved in basic research on thunderstorms but the scale of the study was much smaller compared to the research being done in other areas like monsoon and climate change.

"The Ministry of Earth Sciences has formed an expert group consisting of scientists from the IMD, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting as members of the working group," he said during the Question Hour.

The expert group is mandated for development of different monitoring techniques and predictions for thunderstorms and the group is expected to come out with a better strategy by March 2019.

The minister said thunderstorms are a regular feature, especially during the pre-monsoon season and they were often accompanied by rain, strong winds, lightning and hail, posing serious problems to the general public and various socio- economic sectors like aviation, agriculture, transport, power supply etc.

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