Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti to get weather radars

Himachal Pradesh will get two more weather radars shortly, boosting its forecasting capacity. “The proposal for setting up weather radars in the district of Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti is under process. These two radars will be established within a year or two,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, Director, Meteorological Centre, Shimla.

It has been learnt that the radar proposed for the district of Lahaul and Spiti has been approved by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), and the proposal for the second radar in Kinnaur district is under active consideration of the authorities concerned.

Currently, there are three weather radars in the state – in Jot in Chamba district, in Sundernagar in Mandi district, and in Kufri in Shimla district. The three radars, with a capacity to collect data in a radius of 100km, cover more or less the entire state, but some stretches in the districts of Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti are still uncovered. As per a weather official, the state will be covered entirely once these radars are set up.

According to weather officials, the radars are extremely efficient in forecasting the immediate weather up to one to three hours. “The data from the radars help us forecast rain, hail, thunderstorm with high accuracy in terms of time and place,” said the official.

Meanwhile, the process is underway to install 48 automatic weather stations in the state. The state government has already signed an MoU with India Meteorological Department in this regard. At present, there are around 25 automatic weather stations in the state. Apart from observing day to day temperatures, wind speed, humidity, precipitation, the data gathered from these stations over the years reveal which area is vulnerable to which hazard and preventive measures could be taken accordingly at that particular place.