India Take A Lead to Provide Weather & Climate Services to South Asian, South-East Asian & Middle East Countries

India has taken a lead in Asian Continent to provide Weather and Climate services to South Asian, South-East Asian, and Middle East countries, said Union Minister Jitendra Singh while addressing a galaxy of Leaders, Administrators, Scientists, and Scholars on the occasion of the 147th Foundation Day of India Meteorological Department (IMD).

IMD to cater to global needs:

Dr. Jitendra Singh stated that severe weather forecasting has come a long way since 2016 under PM Narendra Modi and has proven useful to countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh in fighting severe climatic disasters. Referring to ISRO’s SAARC Satellite, he said that IMD will reorient its weather and climate services in the coming days in order to meet global needs.

The minister further said that, in addition to using High-Resolution Models, the Ministry of Earth Sciences will deploy and use Drone-based Observation Technology in a big way to strengthen localized forecasting. He emphasized that the language used in forecasts and information would be simple to understand and serve as a solid foundation for every citizen to take action.

‘’The Government is committed to make the India Meteorological Department a World-Class Organization for better delivery of services enabling a common man to take weather-wise and climate-smart decisions. Every commoner is impacted by 5 vital sectors of Agriculture, Health, Water, Energy, and Disaster management being effectively catered to by IMD,’’ he added.

The Minister also dedicated four Doppler Weather Radars at Leh, Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai for better research and operational analysis and announced that with this inauguration, the number of radars in the IMD network has now reached up to 33. The minister further urged IMD that it should efficiently utilize all resources at its command i.e. satellites, radars, computers, advanced models, and human resources.

The Minister stated that modern observing platforms such as automatic weather stations, Doppler weather radars, and meteorological satellites will help to improve weather and climate services even further.

Dr. Jitendra Singh also inaugurated the new platform crowd searching for a collection of observations through the public, thus opening a new chapter in citizen science, which will act as a bridge between science and society.

He said, the web GIS services launched by IMD will be helpful for the public, disaster managers, and stakeholders to initiate timely response action to mitigate the disasters further.

Talking of the recent extreme events, Dr. Jitendra Singh said these have reminded us of the vulnerability of our society. Weather, climate, and water-related disasters have tremendously increased the expectations of the society for better weather and climate services owing to the accurate forecast provided by IMD in the recent past. Underling that India’s cyclone forecast has been appreciated by national and international bodies, he noted with satisfaction that IMD has prepared district-level vulnerability atlas for extreme conditions such as heat-wave, cold-wave, heavy rain, cyclones, and thunderstorms. “I am sure the atlas will help disaster management authorities for risk assessment based on information collected over the years”, he said.

About IMD:

Since its inception 147 years ago on 15 January 1875, IMD has maintained weather and climate records, as well as monitoring and predicting the weather, in the backdrop of a tropical cyclone hitting Calcutta in 1864, and subsequent famines in 1866 and 1871 due to monsoon failure. Throughout its 147-year history, the department has served the cause of safety and well-being of the Indian population against weather-related hazards, as well as the country’s economic development. It is one of the few government departments whose services affect almost every aspect of life and all sectors of the economy.

Recently, IMD has upgraded and digitized several of its services, with the results being near-accurate forecasts in the short time range, advanced prediction of cyclones and their tracks, and the expansion of sector-specific weather services to agriculture, water, health, power, energy, mining, disaster risk reduction, and many other areas.