Lok Sabha Question No. 1192 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-14
Subject: Automatic Weather Station
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Raksha Nikhil Khadse, Manoj Kishorbhai Kotak

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1192

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 14 TH  DECEMBER, 2022

## AUTOMATIC WEATHER STATION

## 1192.    SHRIMATI RAKSHA NIKHIL KHADSE: SHRI MANOJ KOTAK :

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether cloudbursts have been reported frequently worldwide and even in the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the climate change signal is conspicuous and the country do not have long-term (20 years or more) hourly data to arrest it, if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
- (d) whether the Government proposes to install more and more automatic weather stations through India  Meteorological  Department  (IMD)  which  can  record  the  hourly  data  and  can  map cloudburst-prone area;
- (e) if so, the details thereof;
- (f) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  install  more  Multiple  Doppler  Radars  for  monitoring moving cloud droplets and help to provide 'nowcasts' i.e. forecasts for the next three hours; and
- (g) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) - (b) Yes Sir . The cloud bursts events are getting reported frequently all over the world and even in the country.

Cloud burst is considered when the rainfall occurs at the rate of 10 cm/ hour or more over a geographical area of approximately 20-30 square km. The occurrence of the cloud burst is not predictable worldwide. Moreover, the information about cloud burst incidents is very limited. The cloud burst events occur within a short duration & are highly localized. Many such events are not observed in conventional observatory premises.

Mini Cloud Burst (MCB), in which rainfall in two consecutive rainhours is 5 cm or more is recorded,  also  do  occur  during  the  monsoon  season.  MCB  occur  over  Western  Ghats  and Central India during the months of June and over the foot hills of Himalayas during the months of July and August. These events generally occur in the early morning hours along west coast and  foot  hills  of  Himalayas  whereas  over  interior  land  mass  it  occurs  in  the  afternoon  &  in South  Peninsula  it  occurs  during  night  hours.  Cloud-bursts  can  lead  to  Flash  floods,  Land slides etc. affecting the public at large.

- (c) No  Sir.    IMD  is  having  autographic  rainfall  data  records  since  1969  for  about  185  stations across the country.
- (d)-(e) IMD  is  already  having  well  established  AWS  Network  (including  Agro  AWS)  &  ARG network  and has plan to enhance the same further across the country. The details of the same are given in Annexure-I and Annexure-II respectively.
- (f)-(g) There are various ongoing projects pertaining to the installation of Doppler Weather RADARs (DWRs) across the country. Details of the same follow:
-  Under Integrated  Himalayan  Meteorological  Programme  (IHMP),  10  X-Band  DWRs  are being  installed  in  the  Himalayan  and  Sub-Himalayan  region  Leh,  Banihal  Top,  Kufri, Surkanda Devi, Murari Devi, Jot, Lansdowne, Mukteshwar, Jammu and Ayanagar (Delhi).
-  03 C-Band DWRs are proposed to be installed in Bangalore, Sambalpur and Raipur.
-  Existing 04 S-Band coastal region DWRs at Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Machilipatnam and Kolkata are being upgraded to dual polarized S-Band DWRs.
-  08  C-Band  DWRs  are  proposed  to  be  installed  in  Auranagabad,  Port  Blair,  Ranchi, Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Balasore, Malda and Agatti (Lakshadweep).
-  08  X-Band  DWRs are planned  to  be  installed  in  the  North  Eastern  region  in  Guwahati, Jorhat, Tezpur, Silchar, Imphal, Aizawl, Dimapur and Dhubri.
-  05 X-Band DWRs are proposed to be installed in various cities under 'Urban Meteorology' scheme in Pune, Varanasi, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Kozhikode.

## List of   AWS, AGRO AWS and ARG installed all over India

| S NO.   | STATE               |   AWS | AGRO AWS   | ARG   |
|---------|---------------------|-------|------------|-------|
| 1       | ANDAMAN_AND_NICOBAR |     1 | NIL        | NIL   |
| 2       | ANDHRA_PRADESH      |    39 | 9          | 61    |
| 3       | ARUNACHAL_PRADESH   |    16 | 3          | 25    |
| 4       | ASSAM               |    36 | 8          | 58    |
| 5       | BIHAR               |    43 | 14         | 29    |
| 6       | CHANDIGARH          |     2 | NIL        | NIL   |
| 7       | CHHATTISGARH        |    26 | 9          | 31    |
| 8       | DAMAN_AND_DIU       |     2 | NIL        | 1     |
| 9       | DELHI               |    12 | 1          | 1     |
| 10      | GOA                 |     4 | 2          | 5     |
| 11      | GUJARAT             |    45 | 9          | 65    |
| 12      | HARYANA             |    32 | 6          | 33    |
| 13      | HIMACHAL_PRADESH    |    28 | 4          | 66    |
| 14      | JAMMU_AND_KASHMIR   |    30 | 4          | 14    |
| 15      | JHARKHAND           |    32 | 17         | 28    |
| 16      | KARNATAKA           |    36 | 12         | 45    |
| 17      | KERALA              |   101 | 3          | 30    |
| 18      | LADAKH              |    12 | NIL        | NIL   |
| 19      | LAKSHADWEEP         |     2 | 1          | NIL   |
| 20      | MADHYA_PRADESH      |    66 | 14         | 101   |
| 21      | MAHARASHTRA         |    64 | 10         | 122   |
| 22      | MANIPUR             |    12 | 1          | 8     |
| 23      | MEGHALAYA           |    11 | 2          | 15    |
| 24      | MIZORAM             |    12 | 1          | 16    |
| 25      | NAGALAND            |    12 | 2          | 13    |
| 26      | ODISHA              |    40 | 10         | 177   |
| 27      | PUDUCHERRY          |     3 | 1          | 1     |
| 28      | PUNJAB              |    30 | 5          | 31    |
| 29      | RAJASTHAN           |    50 | 9          | 64    |
| 30      | SIKKIM              |     5 | 2          | 4     |
| 31      | TAMIL_NADU          |    47 | 10         | 79    |
| 32      | TELANGANA           |    14 | 4          | 54    |
| 33      | TRIPURA             |    10 | 1          | 14    |
| 34      | UTTARAKHAND         |    28 | 3          | 22    |
| 35      | UTTAR_PRADESH       |    70 | 17         | 132   |
| 36      | WEST_BENGAL         |    33 | 6          | 37    |
| TOTAL   | TOTAL               |  1006 | 200        | 1382  |

## Annexure - I

Annexure -II

New Proposal of AWS, AGRO AWS and ARG Installation under PLAN projects

| No   | Under 400 AWS project   | Under 330 Agro- AWS project   | Under 50 AWS in School Project         | Under 200 AWS/ARG in Urban city project   | Under 200 AWS/ARG in Urban city project   |
|------|-------------------------|-------------------------------|----------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
|      | AWS                     | AGRO AWS                      | AWS with Computer and External Display | AWS                                       | ARG                                       |
|      | 400                     | 330                           | 50                                     | 40                                        | 160                                       |

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