"Climate change restricts weather forecasts, taken steps to overcome those challenges": Met Department DG Mohapatra

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], December 24 (ANI): India Meteorological Department (IMD), Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, on Tuesday highlighted the challenges posed by climate change to the weather forecasters, saying that the ongoing phenomenon has led to extreme weather conditions in the world.
Speaking to ANI, he also noted that the IMD had taken steps to overcome the challenges posed by climate change to detect and predict the smallest weather changes.
"Climate change is an ongoing phenomenon... It restricts weather forecasts. Our forecast accuracy of heavy rainfall has increased from 60% to 80% in the last 5 years. We have taken steps to overcome the challenges of climate change so we can detect and predict the smallest weather changes," Mohapatra said.
Reflecting on the lightning forecast that IMD started in 2019, he said, "We started forecasting lightning in April 2019. Only five countries in the world can predict lightning. To study lightning, we are inaugurating a research test centre in Balasore with the cooperation of ISRO and DRDO. Additional observation systems have been deployed in Jharkhand, Odisha, and Gangetic West Bengal. We will study the lightning process.
He also stated that the accuracy of weather forecasting has increased by 40-50%.
"... In the past 10 years, weather forecasting accuracy (of IMD) has increased by 40-50%... When we started, we had 80 observation stations. Now we have 550 departmental observatories, 2000 automatic weather stations, and Doppler radars in 39 places. 34 more radars will be set up by 2026... These observational augmentations will help us increase our forecast accuracy by 10-15% in the next 5 years.," IMD DG said.
He underlines IMD's efforts to make weather forecasts more accessible in every household.
We recently started the 'Har Har Mausam and Har Ghar Mausam' campaign to make precise weather forecasts more accessible in every household. We have developed a 'Mausam' mobile app that provides weather predictions for every hour in the next 36 hours... With the cooperation of the Panchayati Raj Ministry, we are also sending weather forecasts to ward members, sarpanchs, and panchayat secretaries. With the help of the Rural Development Ministry, women associated with agriculture and animals are also getting the forecast," he added. (ANI)