Hyderabad:

World Meteorological Day is observed every year on March 23 to commemorate the establishment of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1950. This day highlights the importance of the national meteorological and hydrological services in preserving public safety, economic stability, and the environment.

Theme

The theme of this year’s World Meteorological Day – 'Closing the Early Warning Gap Together' – reminds us that, in this new climate reality, early warning systems are not luxuries. They are necessities and sound investments – providing an almost ten-fold return.

Yet, almost half the world’s countries still lack access to these life-saving systems. It is disgraceful that, in a digital age, lives and livelihoods are being lost because people have no access to effective early warning systems.

History of World Meteorological Day

On March 23, 1950, the United Nations (UN) created the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as a specialised agency. The WMO's mission is to advance global collaboration in climate science, hydrology, and meteorology. In 1961, the inaugural World Meteorological Day was celebrated.

Since the 19th century, meteorology has changed dramatically due to developments in satellite technology, climate modelling, and observational networks. The day has served as a forum to increase public awareness of disaster risk reduction, climate change, and the importance of meteorology to global sustainability over the years.

Significance

Encouraging Climate Awareness: To address global issues like climate change, extreme weather, and sea level rise, it is essential to comprehend weather and climate patterns, which are highlighted on World Meteorological Day.

Educating the Public: The goal of World Meteorological Day is to increase public awareness of the weather phenomena that affect our daily lives through a variety of activities, conversations, and educational initiatives.

Encouraging International Cooperation: To ensure that environmental issues are addressed globally, the WMO encourages cooperation between countries in meteorology, hydrology, and related sciences.

Impact of Climate Change on Meteorology

Unpredictable monsoon patterns impacting agriculture.

Rising sea levels threaten low-lying cities and islands.

Increased frequency of heatwaves and droughts leading to water scarcity.

More intense hurricanes and cyclones affect coastal regions.

India meteorological department

Later IMD became the first organisation in India to have a message-switching computer for supporting its global data exchange. One of the first electronic computers introduced in the country was provided to IMD for scientific applications in meteorology.

India was the first developing country in the world to have its geostationary satellite, INSAT, for continuous weather monitoring of this part of the globe and particularly for cyclone warning.

A disastrous tropical cyclone struck Calcutta in 1864 and this was followed by failures of the monsoon rains in 1866 and 1871. In 1875, Indian government established the India Meteorological Department, bringing all meteorological work in the country under a central authority. HF Blanford was appointed meteorological reporter to the government of India.

The first director general of observatories was Sir John Eliot who was appointed in May 1889 at Calcutta headquarters. The headquarters of IMD were later shifted to Shimla, then to Poona (now Pune) and finally to New Delhi.

IMD has continuously ventured into new areas of application and service and steadily built upon its infra-structure in its history of 140 years. It has simultaneously nurtured the growth of meteorology and atmospheric science in India. Today, meteorology in India is poised at the threshold of an exciting future.

From a modest beginning in 1875, IMD has progressively expanded its infrastructure for meteorological observations, communications, forecasting and weather services and it has achieved a parallel scientific growth. IMD has always used contemporary technology. In the telegraph age, it made extensive use of weather telegrams for collecting observational data and sending warnings.

Pioneering Weather Observations

By 2023, IMD will have replaced all Mercury Barometers with Digital Barometers by the UNEP Minamata convention (as mercury is hazardous to human health) at all Class I observatories. Enhanced agro-meteorological services with the deployment of 200 AGRO AWS stations. Sustenance of 25 GPS-based PB Stations in which 5 stations are equipped with IMD manufactured and 20 are outsourced from Indian manufacturers.

IMD: Achievements and Advancements

IMD has made significant advancements since its inception, reflecting its commitment to innovation and service enhancement. Key achievements include:

Advances in Numerical Weather Prediction

Overall Forecast Accuracy witnessed a 40% improvement in 2023 as compared to 2014. Expansion of the Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) network from 15 in 2014 to 39 in 2023 with land area of coverage increased by about 35% from 2014.

The successful prediction of cyclones like Phailin (2013), Hudhud (2014), Fani (2019), Amphan (2020), Tauktae (2021), Biparjoy (2023), and Dana (2024) has demonstrated our capabilities and the value of our services in saving lives and reducing economic losses. With the accurate cyclone warning by IMD, the number of deaths has reduced from 10,000 in 1999 to Zero in 2020-2024

Communication and Outreach

India Meteorological Department launched its Crowdsource web interface in January 2021 and the mobile App "Public Observation” on 14th January 2022 to allow users to provide their weather feedback at any time from anywhere.

Crowdsourcing: Since 2021, IMD has started an online interface to collect information on the weather that has occurred as well as the associated impact information for six weather events initially, viz., Rain. Hail, Duststorm, Wind Speed, Thunderstorm/Lightning & Fog.

IMD’s new model will sharpen the weather forecast

Recently, a high-resolution model being developed by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) will expand the current 12-km grid spacing to 6 km by 2026, improving forecasting capabilities. By improving weather forecasts at the panchayat level, this action hopes to give farmers more accurate predictions.

To increase coverage and forecast accuracy, the India Meteorological Department is putting in automated stations, wind profilers, and radars. To further increase accuracy, the IMD is integrating machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, as well as growing its Doppler weather radar network. By 2026, we hope to have 126 Doppler weather radars nationwide, up from the current 40.

We currently cover 85% of the area, and once the full deployment is in place, we will cover 100% of the area," Mohapatra stated. This guarantees redundancy if one radar goes down, another can take its place and improves the capacity to monitor extreme weather events, he added.

Radars cost between 10 and 20 crore each. In the upcoming years, the weather forecaster plans to further integrate AI and ML into its forecasting processes, which it has already begun to do.

Technological Advancements

High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model for Nowcasting of Rainfall & Reflectivity forecasts. Electric Weather Research and Forecasting (EWRF) model for Nowcast of Lightning density & Accumulated Rainfall forecasts

Mausamgram, an interactive and dynamic Meteogram which provides location-specific weather forecast information was released on 15-01-2024 during the IMD’s 150th foundation celebration day by the Vice President of India to the public usage

Increase in the number of Automatic Rain Gauges (ARG) from 1350 in 2014 to 1382 in 2023. Increase in the number of District-wise Rainfall Monitoring Scheme (DRMS) stations from 3955 in 2014 to 5896 in 2023.

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