Knowledge nugget of the day: IMD’s colour-coded weather alerts

Subject: Environment and Disaster Management

Why in news?

IMD issued ‘red alert’ in Gujarat due to heavy rainfall and severe waterlogging. India Meteorological Department (IMD) issues colour-coded weather alerts from time to time during the monsoon. These keep citizens informed and help in greater preparedness in times of unpredictable weather conditions.

Key takeaways

Alerts by the IMD are colour-coded from Green to Red.

1. ‘Green’ stands for ‘No warning’: no action needs to be taken by the authorities, and the forecast is of light to moderate rain. According to the weather department, 15.6 mm to 64.4 mm rain is considered “moderate”.

2.‘Yellow’ alert signifies “Watch”, and authorities are advised to “Be updated” on the situation. According to the weather department, 64.5 mm to 115.5 mm rain is considered “heavy”.

3. ‘Orange’ warning stands for “Alert”, and authorities are expected to “Be prepared”. The forecast during an Orange warning is of heavy to very heavy rainfall. According to IMD, 115.6 mm to 204.4 mm rain is considered “very heavy”.

4.  ‘Red’ alert stands for “Warning”, and asks authorities to “Take action”. The forecast is for extremely heavy rainfall. The IMD, however, clarifies that “Red colour warning does not mean ‘Red Alert’,” and that it only means “take action”. According to IMD, more than 204.5 mm rain is considered “extremely heavy”.

Beyond the term

A new mission to improve weather forecasting expected to be launched soon

India’s weather department is set to get a massive upgrade of its forecasting capabilities that will enable it to make localised and extreme-weather predictions with far greater accuracy.

A new mission to improve weather forecasting, with a budget of at least Rs 10,000 crore is expected to be launched soon, The Indian Express has learnt. It is likely to be several times bigger than Monsoon Mission, launched in 2012, that has resulted in a noticeable uplift in the capabilities of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Previous upgrades to the weather forecasting system, including the Monsoon Mission, have focused mainly at improving the infrastructure — more instruments and better computing power.

The new mission is expected to focus on developing more accurate computer simulation models that will be tailor-made for India and would account for climate change scenarios, The Indian Express has learnt.

The mission would also further strengthen installation of more sophisticated instruments like Doppler radars, focus on greater integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in weather forecasting.

India already has three satellites in space — INSAT-3D, INSAT-3DR and INSAT-3DS —that are used mainly for meteorological observations. Of these, INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR have been in space for over 8 years, and nearly completed their mission lives. INSAT-3DS was launched earlier this year. The next generation of meteorological satellites, possibly in INSAT-4 series, are already under development. These satellites would be equipped with latest technologies and designed to produce very high-resolution data to feed into weather forecasts.

Point to ponder:

Why India’s weather forecasting needs an upgrade?

(Refer: India’s weather forecasting by Amitabh Sinha)

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