New Delhi, Jul 31 (IANS): To provide integrated Early Warning System, India Meteorological Department (IMD) has developed a web portal for Urban Meteorological Services for Delhi and national capital region.
It was released by M. Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences in a function held on July 30.
The Urban Meteorological Services webpage provides current Weather and Air quality Observations as well as weather forecast at different time scales. The real time weather (Temperature, Relative Humidity, Rainfall, Windspeed and Wind Direction) and air quality information (PM10, PM2.5, Ozone and Air Quality Index) collected from monitoring stations of different institutions in Delhi and NCR are presented in graphical form in the webpage so that hotspots can be identified easily.
The data are collected from networks of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The data of 58 Air Quality and Weather Monitoring Stations and nine IMD weather stations have been included in the Urban Meteorological System from Delhi-NCR.
Radar and Satellite observations are also provided for the Delhi-NCR region specifically. The weather forecast, air quality forecast, nowcast and weather alerts/warnings generated by IMD are available on this webpage.
"This will help the concerned authorities and general public to take informed decision and suitable measures for weather and air quality related events," IMD stated.
Early this month, the department came under a lot of criticism over its forecast of rains in Delhi. To this, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general of Meteorology at the IMD clarified that no forecasting model in the world can predict with 100 per cent accuracy even with the best of technology.
He has argued that the unpredictable nature of the monsoon can only provide 55 per cent to 60 per cent accuracy even with the best of technology.