Currently, there are 39 Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) well distributed across the country to monitor severe weather events.

With this current deployment of DWR network, India Meteorological Department (IMD) has made an immense improvement in forecasting weather events. Some important achievements are given below;

• The nowcast accuracy, i.e. Probability of Detection (PoD) has increased from 61% in 2014 to 91% in 2023
• No cyclone has gone undetected due to the coastal Radars
• The heavy rainfall events in plains and hilly areas are also better detected and predicted.
• Moreover, the data from these DWRs are assimilated in various state-of-the-art regional and global dynamical models for generating the forecasts at various temporal and spatial scales. Radar observations are helping in further tuning the model forecasts and warning at local scale in terms of severity and detection of cyclones, rains, thunderstorms. The nowcast model, viz. High-Resolution Rapid Refresh Modelling System (IMD-HRRR) and Electric Weather Research and Forecasting (EWRF) model use Radar data for prediction of rainfall and thunderstorm in 6 to 12 hours advance.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Earth Sciences, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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SNC/PK/LS1689

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