HYDERABAD: The Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) that forecasts weather alerts, put up by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on the Met department premises near Begumpet airport has gone dysfunctional due to technical snag.
The DWR put up by GHMC was very helpful in sending early weather forecast reports to the GHMC for tackling emergency situations. It has stopped sending forecast reports to GHMC on daily basis for the last few days.
It is learnt that it would take another two to three weeks for repairing the equipment. GHMC officials admitted that due to technical snag, DWR equipment has not been functioning for the last few days.
‘’With DWR becoming defunct, we don’t know which place in the city is getting lashed with rains. We used to get weather forecast alerts from the Met department at least four to five hours early, which used to help us in taking preventive steps in emergency situations. But the corporation stopped receiving forecast alerts from the department as the DWR was not functioning’’, a senior GHMC official told Express.
Rain Gauges
Same is the case with rain gauge stations which were installed at few places in Greater Hyderabad. Apart from DWR, data from rain gauge stations can be used to make weather predictions, interpretation, analysis and also manage traffic during heavy rains.
As the city is being pounded by rains since the last four days, the corporation is clueless about its varying intensity across the city as not even one-third of the recommended number of rain gauges were in place.
With no area-specific updates on the quantum of rainfall received, except those provided by the IMD, the authorities were unable to provide timely help in case of waterlogging and traffic jams. Met department also passes monsoon-related warnings to alert the control rooms of the departments concerned as well as the airport.
Going by international standards, the city should ideally have around 150 rain gauge stations. As per the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), there should be one rain gauge station for every four sq.km.