Last year during the pre-monsoon season a series of thunderstorm/dust storm affected the northern states and claimed about 200 lives. In view of this the India Meteorological Department (IMD) will be implementing an end-to-end prediction system for predicting thunderstorms/lightning by April 2019.
Union Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan t a press conference in New Delhi on Monday said that Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and IMD are developing prediction tools for thunderstorm/lightning.
IITM Pune has already installed 48 lightning sensors around the country which can locate the thunderstorm/lightning activities on real time. IITM Pune also developed a Mobile App called “DAMINI” to give alerts on impending lightning activity over the area.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan also informed that currently IITM Pune and IMD are developing a new website for IMD along with the Mobile Apps for Farmers and City Forecasts.
These new tools will help IMD to disseminate forecasts and warnings on time and more effectively to the users and the new website and mobile Apps will be ready for launch by June 2019.
The Minister further informed the press that IITM Pune with the help of IMD and Mumbai Municipal Corporation is installing a new dense rain-gauge network over Mumbai City with 200 rain-gauges.
In addition, 4 X-band radars will be also installed so that a merged rainfall data set at 2 km resolution will be prepared and made available to public on real time.
“This facility will help the city administration and general public to know the prevailing rainfall situation in the city on real time basis. For this purpose, already a mobile App has been developed.”, added Dr. Vardhan.
