News Excerpt:

Recently, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) celebrated the 150th year of its establishment and service to the nation.

Achievements of IMD:

• Weather Analysis and Forecast Enabling System (WAFES):

• • The IMD has developed the in-house Web-GIS-based integrated Decision Support System (DSS) known as the Weather Analysis and Forecast Enabling System (WAFES) inspired by Pancha Mahabhuta i.e. Water, Air, Fire, Earth and Sky. 
  • The WAFES serves as a visualization platform to analyze meteorological observations and prediction models, aiding decision-making for severe weather phenomena and their socio-economic impact.
  • It provides real-time information for the Urban, Power, Hydrology, Health, Energy, Agriculture, Transport and Tourism sectors.

• Panchayat Mausam Seva Portal for farmers:

• • IMD, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Green Alert Mausam Sewa have jointly developed the Panchayat Mausam Sewa Portal. 
  • Through this portal, weather forecasts in English, Hindi and twelve regional languages will be provided to every panchayat head and panchayat secretary to reach every village in the country. 
  • This initiative will enrich every farmer in the country with weather alerts, warnings, and medium-range weather forecasts to help them in planning agricultural activities like sowing, transplantation, application of irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. 
  • It will help in reducing the input cost and crop loss due to aberrant weather, and finally increase the production and income.

• IMD’s Mobile App and Mausamgram:

• • IMD launched an integrated GIS-based interactive mobile app, MAUSAM, for all weather-related services like current weather, forecast of every hour to 7 days, Rainfall, Humidity, Sunrise/Sunset, Moonrise/Moonset, Rain Alert, Lightning Alert, Cyclone Alert, Aviation and Agro-Meteorological advisories. 
  • The app supports 12 Indian languages for varied users in India.
  • Upholding the vision "Har Har Mausam, Har Ghar Mausam," IMD introduces "mausamgram," available through the Mobile App “Mausam”. 
  • It allows the public to view observations, forecasts, and warnings for their location through a map or search function using place names, pincodes, or coordinates. 
  • Forecasts and warnings are disseminated in text and graphics format on this mobile App. 

• National Framework of Climate Services (NFCS):
• Weather and Climate influence our lives and livelihood. Considering this, IMD introduced the NFCS.
• IMD prepares the climatology of basic meteorological parameters like rainfall, temperature, wind & pressure and climate extremes like heat waves, cold waves, thunderstorms, cyclones, depressions, lows, heavy rainfall, etc. 
• IMD has digitised all observational data since 1901. 
• In 2021, IMD introduced a visualization tool for the public to observe different climate parameters, extremes, hazards, and vulnerability maps for severe weather events.
• IMD has provided climate forecasts for each month and season based on the dynamic multi-model ensemble climate forecast system since 2021.
• IMD has played a pivotal role in increasing farmers' income through appropriate daily weather forecasts, hazards, and crop weather advisories.
• Through accurate forecasts, a BPL family farmer with a landholding of less than 2 acres in a rainfed area gains Rs 12,500 using weather information, and the country gains 13,300 crores towards GDP per year.
• To support the Gati Shakti and Udaan Scheme, IMD has contributed significantly by ensuring safe aviation through Aviation Weather monitoring and forecasting for all 117 Airports.
• IMD earned appreciation from WMO (World Meteorological Organization), the United Nations, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for Early Warning Services provided by IMD during Super Cyclone Amphan in 2020 and Cyclone MOCHA in 2023.

About India Meteorological Department (IMD):

• It was established in 1875.
• It comes under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
• It is the National Meteorological Service of the country and the principal government agency in all matters relating to meteorology and allied subjects.
• Functions: 

• Take meteorological observations and provide current and forecast meteorological information for optimum operation of weather-sensitive activities.
• Warn against severe weather phenomena like tropical cyclones, norwesters (local rainfall or thunderstorm), duststorms, heavy rains and snow, cold and heat waves, etc.
• Provide meteorological statistics required for agriculture, water resource management, industries, oil exploration and other nation-building activities.

Conclusion:

The role of IMD has diversified and increased many folds with services extended to agriculture, aviation, disaster management, energy, health, hydrology, power, tourism and other sectors. In future too, the IMD will keep receiving service requirements and it will only keep increasing in the coming years. The challenge before the IMD would be dealing with unscientific and unreasonable demands.