Weather forecast is an essential element of our lives as knowledge about forthcoming weather conditions helps us in preparing ourselves and taking necessary precautions against any weather condition.
To highlight the importance of weather forecasting and the field of meteorology, World Meteorology Day is celebrated every year on March 23 by the IMD, which is the nodal government agency for weather forecasting in India. The theme for this year’s celebrations is ‘early warning and early action’.
On this day the IMD opens up its facilities for the viewing of the general public, including the students. The IMD officials have interaction with the public regarding what activity it does and share information on the subject of weather prediction.
“Every year on World Meteorological Day, IMD Goa organises an open house where students and other enthusiasts can come and see our office, our instruments and get knowledge about our functioning. From 10am-5pm everybody is invited,” said Rahul M, Scientist ‘C’ and Station-in-charge of India Meteorological Department (IMD), Goa located in Altinho.
“We all know the importance of weather forecasting in disaster mitigation and the overall economy of the country, especially the agriculture sector. The government has been investing heavily in this regard and IMD also has been improving its weather forecasting capabilities every time,” IMD station in-charge said.
“We do give a forecast for the next five days which is called a medium-range forecast, then there is a forecast for the entire season, which is called Long Range Forecast. Then we also give 3-6 hourly weather forecasts called Now Cast. These predictions not only play an important role in planning our day-to-day outdoor activities, but also help in disaster management. Last year in July when there was a flood-like situation in Goa, we predicted the persistence of heavy rainfall 7-10 days in advance. This gave the Disaster Management Authority ample amount of time to take mitigation measures,” he added.
We know how copious the rainfall in Goa is. So, we give all information regarding how heavy the rainfall will be. Goa is also prone to cyclones along with heavy rains during monsoon. It is a general feature that at least one cyclone is formed over the Arabian Sea in one calendar year. So, Goa is prone to the impact of cyclones when it strikes the shores.
“Last year cyclone Tauktae was less than 100 km away from Goa’s shores. Such weather incidents are going to be repeated in future as cyclone intensity is also increasing. All this information is being made available by the IMD,” he said.
IMD is also changing its forecast approach from ‘what the weather can be’ to ‘what the weather will do’.
“It means that we will not just focus on the weather phenomenon but also assess what would be its impact on the ground. And, now we are also doing crop-specific impact-based forecasting along with the cooperation of Agromet unit KVK, ICAR-CCARI, Old Goa so that our forecasting is more useful to the public and plays a vital role in disaster management,” he said.
