A Sudden downpour in Mumbai may not catch weather officials unawares any more. The newly installed doppler weather radar will ensure that the city is better prepared to handle heavy showers. Officials at the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) have already started spotting clouds through the radar. But they are sure that they wont usher in the rains yet. The screens are still grey,indicating little possibility of rain. They look intently to spot big blue or pink dots,which will be a signal for the rains. We have been noticing tiny clouds over Mumbai for the past few days. However,we are sure these are not rain-bearing clouds. The radar has enabled us to get the dimensions of different kinds of clouds,which we did not have earlier, said R V Sharma,Deputy Director General of IMD. Data from the radar has been officially posted on the website for three days,but useful data and trends have been studied and filed for the past two months. We are able to see some tiny blue dots on the diagrams generated from the radar,but are sure that they are not rain-bearing clouds. Earlier,we came to know of clouds hovering above the city every three hours and by then it rained. Now,we get are able to see activity for the smallest of the clouds every 15 minutes, said Ashalata Agarwal,Assistant Meteorologist at the IMD. We will get alerted if these dots get bigger and turn red and pink,meaning it is going to rain heavily, said another official at the weather control room,explaining that the display of the radar has been colour coded so even a layman can understand whether it will rain or not in the next few minutes. The IMDs weather control room has a team of 10-12 officials of which four are stationed for round-the-clock monitoring of weather data. According to an official,Earlier,we waited for nearby weather stations to alert us about any cloud activity in their zones,but now we can see cloud patterns as far as Pune. Is studying the seven parameters of the weather generated by the radar and 30 sets of data generated tough. No comes the quick reply. We are able to see whether a cloud is fat,thin,hot or cool to decide how much rain it will carry, explained another official. The dome-shaped disc has radars which can penetrate a cloud horizontally,recording various characteristics unlike the previous data,which was generated through satellite images which gave a picture from the top. We are hoping this time our predictions will be accurate, said Sharma. Meanwhile,Municipal Commissioner,Subodh Kumar visited the IMD headquarters on Wednesday to observe the weather control room. He was worried about the monsoon hitting the city soon as substantial amount of nullah cleaning has not been completed, said an official.
