10 new automatic weather stations by year-end: IMD

Pune is all set to get ten new Automatic Weather Stations(AWS) by the end of this year. With the locations are yet to be finalised they will be set up in addition to the existing three AWS in the city at Pashan,Hadapsar and Shivajinagar. Director of the India Meteorological Department (IMD),Dr Ajit Tyagi,told Newsline on Tuesday that the city will soon have these stations which will enable them to make better forecasts. With a few to be installed in the coming month,he said that by the end of the year all the stations would be in place.

These weather stations are inclusive of the 550 additional AWS which are to come up in the country while there will be 1,350 automatic rain gauge stations to provide district level agricultural met advisory. Dr Tyagi said the installation would help give weekly as well as fortnightly monsoon forecasts and this would help the farmers. “We will make forecasts based on these systems,” he said. These weather stations are part of the modernisation plans of the IMD. They have also selected the city to have high-power computing systems which will help give accurate weather forecast data. According to a senior Met official these new systems will refine the weather forecast generated on the district scale and support the crop planning process. The existing network includes 125 automatic weather stations and a large number of manual observatories as well agro-advisories. IMD officials said that farmers were currently provided only weather forecasts. The agro advisory will include inputs like which crop would be suitable,and in which season and what farmers of a district should do according to the weather pattern. The information would be disseminated through advisory centres,Kisan Vikas Kendras and agricultural universities. A mechanism has also been developed to obtain feedback from the farmers on the quality of weather forecast,relevance and the content of agro-met advisory and effectiveness of the information dissemination system.