BHUBANESWAR: To prevent damage to life and property caused by extreme rainfall events, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has planned massive expansion of its doppler radar footprints to improve forecast of cloudbursts. Since the cloudburst phenomenon occurs primarily in the Himalayan and Western Ghats regions, the national weather agency is focusing on ramping up forecasting in these two areas.
“The number of radars has been increased in the two regions. Already 10 radars are operational in the western Himalayan region. Three are operational in North-Eastern hills and eight more will be added in the coming days,” Director General of IMD, Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra told The New Indian Express here.
By 2030, the national agency aims to install 86 doppler radars across the country.
At present, it has 37 radars across India and will add 25 more by 2025. The IMD DG pointed out the enhancement may not be sufficient as old and redundant radars will have to be replaced with new ones. “We are planning to add 24 more radars across the country after 2025 and take the total number to 86 by 2030,” he said.
Mohapatra said cloudburst is an extreme amount of precipitation within a short period of time and distance which makes its detection a challenge. “IMD will not be able to achieve the target alone and is collaborating with state governments and other organisations to increase the number of radars,” he said.
IMD is also working with the Ministry of Agriculture and has come up with a plan to set up automatic weather stations in every block and automatic rain gauge in each panchayat of the country. “States like Odisha are augmenting their weather observation systems. The plan is to have an integrated observation system which IMD will monitor and provide the forecasts,” said Mohapatra.
To issue forecasts for urban flooding, systems have already been installed in Chennai, Mumbai and Guwahati. Similar system will soon be installed in New Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Varanasi and other cities.
“Another project has been taken up with the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing and other organisations for five cities including Bhubaneswar and Cuttack to set up augmented weather observation systems,” said Mohapatra.
Apart from Gopalpur and Paradip in Odisha, doppler radars will be installed in Sambalpur, Balasore and Bhubaneswar. The IMD DG said the weather agency will observe its 150th anniversary on January 15, 2025. The celebrations will commence with a curtain raiser on January 15 next year.
“IMD’s vision is to ensure no weather phenomenon goes unpredicted. There is still scope of improvement in issuing forecasts for hailstorm and lightning,” he said.