Indian Meteorological Department

• Context (PIB): The Indian Meteorological Department completed 150 years of its establishment.
• The IMD was established in 1875.
• It is India’s National Meteorological Service and the principal government agency in all matters relating to meteorology and allied subjects.
• It is one of the six Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
• Headquarters: New Delhi (Initially at Shimla, later at Poona and finally shifted to New Delhi).
• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Earth Science.
• Headed by: Director General of Meteorology.
• There are six Regional Meteorological Centres located in Chennai, Guwahati, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, and New Delhi, each under a Deputy Director General.

Functions

• To provide meteorological information for weather-sensitive activities like agriculture, irrigation, shipping, aviation, offshore oil explorations, etc.
• To provide the meteorological statistics needed for activities such as oil exploration, agriculture, water resource management, industry, and other nation-building projects.
• To issue warnings about dangerous weather conditions that can destroy both life and property, such as tropical cyclones, dust storms, heavy rain, snow, cold and heat waves etc.

Initiatives launched

National Framework of Climate Services (NFCS)

• Objective: To reduce losses from climate hazards and extreme weather events.
• It would strengthen the production and delivery of science-based climate monitoring and prediction services for agriculture, health, energy, disaster, etc.

Panchayat Mausam Sewa Portal

• It provides information on all weather parameters such as severe weather warnings, maximum and minimum temperatures, humidity, wind speed, etc.
• The information will be provided in Hindi, English, and 12 regional languages to all panchayat heads and panchayat secretaries.
• It will help in reducing crop loss and input cost and better planning of agricultural activities.

Mausam App

• It provides weather-related services like current weather, forecast of every hour to 7 days, Rainfall, Humidity, Sunrise/Sunset, Rain, Lightning & Cyclone Alert, Aviation & Agro-Meteorological advisories.

Mausamgram

• available through the Mausam App, it allows the public to view observations, forecasts, & warnings for their location through a map or search function using place names, pincodes, or coordinates.

Decision Support System (Weather Analysis and Forecast Enabling System (WAFES))

• It serves as a visualization platform to analyze meteorological observations and prediction models, aiding decision-making for severe weather phenomena and their socio-economic impact.
• It provides real-time information for various sectors such as Urban, Power, Hydrology, Health, Energy, Agriculture, Transport, and Tourism under the “UPHHEATT” initiative (for the cause of welfare).