Lok Sabha Question No. 2692 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-08-05
Subject: Weather Forecasting Centres
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: KANWAR SINGH TANWAR, MANOJ RAJORIA, DHANANJAY BHIMRAO MAHADIK, HEENA VIJAYKUMAR GAVIT, VIJAYSINH MOHITE PATIL, JOSE K. MANI, KULAMANI SAMAL, RAYAPATI SAMBASIVA RAO, SUPRIYA SADANAND SULE

**GOVERNMENT OF INDIA**

**MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES**

**LOK SABHA**

**UNSTARRED QUESTION No 2692**

**TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 05, 2015**

**WEATHER FORECASTING CENTRES**

**2692.   SHRI KANWAR SINGH TANWAR:**

**SHRI JOSE K. MANI:**

**SHRIMATI SUPRIYA SULE:**

**SHRI MOHITE PATIL VIJAYSINH SHANKARRAO:**

**SHRI DHANANJAY MAHADIK:**

**DR. HEENA VIJAYKUMAR GAVIT:**

**DR. MANOJ RAJORIA:**

**SHRI RAYAPATI SAMBASIVA RAO:**

**DR. KULAMANI SAMAL:**

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to State:

1. whether India has sufficient weather forecasting centres and if so, the details thereof, State-wise;
2. if not, the reasons therefor and the details of difficulties faced/being faced by the Government as result thereof along with the action taken/being taken by the Government in this regard;
3. whether some of the installed Doppler Weather Radars are not functioning and if so, the details thereof, location-wise and the reasons therefor along with the action taken/being taken by the Government in this regard;
4. whether Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) website is not providing proper weather forecast/events; and
5. if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor along with the action taken/being taken by the Government in this regard?

**ANSWER**

**MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND**

**MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES**

**(Shri Y. S. Chowdary)**

(a) 	Yes Madam. A three-tier structure has been established in Earth System Science Organization – India Meteorological Department (ESSO-IMD) for providing weather forecasts and warnings for natural calamities like very heavy rainfall, snowfall, thunderstorm, hailstorm, heat wave, cold wave etc.  National Weather Forecasting Centre at ESSO-IMD Headquarters at New Delhi supervises the issuance of All India Weather warnings and coordinates with various organizations at national level.  Regional Meteorological Centres (RMCs) and State Meteorological Centres (SMCs) cater to the needs of general public, tourists by providing weather forecasts specific to their region and States.  At present weather forecasts and warnings for 36 meteorological sub-divisions of the country, 324 major locations and 110 tourist places are being issued on daily basis.  In addition, 10 Flood Meteorological Offices (FMOs) have been established for providing meteorological support to the flood forecasting system of the Central Water Commission that issues flood warnings covering various river systems of the country.  The details of the established **forecasting structure** are given below:

1.	National Weather Forecasting Centre, New Delhi

2.	Regional Meteorological Centres (RMCs): New Delhi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Guwahati and Chennai.

3.	State Meteorological Centres (SMCs): Agartala, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Gangrok, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Shimla, Srinagar and Thiruvananthapuram.

4.	Flood Meteorological Offices (FMOs): Asansol, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Agra, Jalpaiguri, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Patna.

5.	Airport Meteorological Offices functional at 72 civilian airports provide viation weather forecasting services.

6.	Cyclone Warning Division established at New Delhi deals with cyclone warning with three Area Cyclone Warning Centres at Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and three Warning Centres at Visakhapatnam, Bhuvaneswar and Ahmedabad also serves as Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

(b)  	Does not arise.

(c)	Yes Madam. Details of Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs), those are non- functional are listed below:

|   **S. No.** | **Location of DWRs**   | **Reason of temporary non-functionality**                                                                                         |
|--------------|------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|           1. | Palam, New Delhi       | Defective spares are under Procurement. DWR located at Lodi Road is functional to provide severe weather surveillance over Delhi. |
|           2. | Agartala               | Radar under maintenance.                                                                                                          |
|           3. | Lucknow                | Frequency Generator defective (Repair/ Replacement under process).                                                                |
|           4. | Mumbai                 | Radar Observation suspended due to problem in UPS System Modules (Replacement under process)                                      |
|           5. | Nagpur                 | Transmitter Unit defective (Repair/ Replacement under process).                                                                   |

**(d)** No Madam. ESSO-IMD website is one of the most visited and efficiently served public portal to provide valuable information regarding weather climate and natural hazards (Cyclones; Earthquakes) along with related services to the public in real time with 24X7 updates in an uninterrupted manner. As evidently, during June-July months of 2015,   19, 14,114 visitors have accessed the web portal for obtaining desired information.  Upgradation of the supporting hardware and visualization software takes place as per the emerging needs.

(e)  	Does not arise.