Next time you plan to board a flight from Chennai to Delhi in the winters, you can check for fog on ‘India Weather’, a mobile application (App) launched on Tuesday by India Meteorological Department (IMD).’

The IMD’s App is meant for smartphones and tablets and can be downloaded through Google Play Store. To begin with, the App is available in four metros – Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata – and will offer current weather observations along with four-day forecasts. The App will be later extended to other parts of the country.

Launching the App as part of the celebrations of IMD’s 138{+t}{+h} foundation day here, Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Jaipal Reddy said reliability of monsoon forecast was key to ensuring food security, and added that there was need to focus attention on predicting extreme weather elements, which had become quite common.

Earlier, IMD’s Director-General L.S. Rathore said more value added services such as weather bulletins, alerts, and agro-meteorological advisories would be added over the coming months.

He said IMD planned to upgrade and specialise its services during the 12{+t}{+h} Plan period with focus on extending its Agromet Advisory Services to the block level by the next year. At present, Agromet provides weather advisories to farmers in all districts of the country.

Rathore also said that manpower at IMD was being augmented. “This year, 434 scientists are being recruited,” he added.

The Insat-3D satellite with six-channel imagers and 19-channel sounder for weather forecasting will be launched by the middle of the year, he added.

The future plans of IMD include an Integrated Himalayan Meteorology Programme to improve mountain weather and climate monitoring and forecast, setting up an Aviation Weather decision Support System, and establishment of a Regional Climate Centre for the country and South Asia.

aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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