IMD to bolster Doppler Radar Station network

The country's weather monitoring network is set get bolstered further with the addition of three more Doppler Radar Stations by IMD to its existing 24, and 11 more by the Indian Air Force, taking the total to 38.

KJ Ramesh, Director General of the India Meteorological Department, part of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has said that the addition of the new Doppler Radar Stations over the next two-three years along with data from two dedicated Insat satellites would enhance the weather prediction capability.

Better coverage Interacting on the sidelines of a conference at the Weather Monitoring Station at the Old Begumpet Airport here on Thursday, the DG said, “We now get data from two Insat satellites along with the Doppler Radar Station network. With the addition of the new stations, the coverage would get bigger. Equipment for some of the stations has already been ordered and one of them will come up at Dundigal Air Force Station near Hyderabad.”

Referring to the monsoon spread in the country and IMD prediction, the DG said, “We had predicted about 96 per cent of normal rain this season. However, this was updated to 98 per cent midway through. As of now, it has been about 95 per cent.” The DG said that abnormally heavy rains/downpours have come to stay if the current trends are any indication. This is mainly due to global warming. While the overall rainfall distribution will not change much, heavy downpours have become common now.

The actual rainfall distribution has been quite normal in the peninsula and other States covered by the southwest monsoon. Barring Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, which have deficit, the other States have fared well. In fact, the monsoon has been quite good in Kerala and Karnataka in particular, as against the situation last year.

The predictions of agriculture output too has been good both by the RBI and Crisil and the sowing has been spread over 149 lakh hectares, about 6 lakh hectares below last year.

Reservoir levels The water level in reservoirs as per the data provided by the Central Water Commission has been 87 per cent of the total capacity and about 4-5 per cent less than 10-year average.

Referring to the weather monitoring systems, the DG mentioned about how Karnataka has managed to place telemetry network in every panchayat. This provides data from each of these locations and helps monitor the developments better.

He said efforts are on to work with the municipal corporations in Hyderabad and Mumbai on weather monitoring systems.