Weather details at a click away
Aksheev Thakur
New Delhi, January 13
Increasing its expansion of coverage, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has prepared a mobile app that brings weather forecasting at the click of a finger.
Speaking with The Tribune, the Director General, IMD, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said the initiative is part of ‘har har mausam, har ghar mausam’.
“If a man is building a house and wants to know the weather details of the area. He can access the information through a mobile app.
The plan is to have a weather forecast wherever you want. Anybody sitting in any corner of the country can access information through the app for the next seven days and also for the next few hours,” he said.
Mohapatra said that the users of the app can write the name of the place or provide the pincode of the area and the forecast will be provided in a seamless manner.
“All weather parameters such as maximum and minimum temperatures, humidity, wind speed will be known to the users. It will also provide severe weather warnings,” Mohapatra added.
The met department also has ambitious plans of increasing the radars for weather forecast from the present 39 to 86 down the line.
“In the next five years our accuracy in predicting will be further enhanced. Equipment will be modernised. IMD is also collaborating with state governments to improve its observation network,” he added.
Mohapatra also informed that IMD on January 15 will also launch the National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS) with the objective of providing climate information and services to all sectors, including agriculture, energy, disaster management, power, transport, health, and water, to help them make informed decisions and mitigate climate risks.
Commenting over the comparison of the accuracy in weather prediction between India and other developing countries, Mohapatra said, “Our forecasting as far as cyclone prediction is better than the developed countries.
We give weather forecast services to several developing countries. The IMD started severe weather warnings for thunderstorms for 120 cities in 2013 and today we are doing it for 1,200 cities and towns,” Mohapatra said.
