India: IMD to start predicting thunderstorm and lightning
By Kalyan Ray
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"The thunderstorm and lightning forecast will start from April 2019, for which we have installed 48 lightning sensors. A mobile application for lightning prediction, named "Damini," has been developed to disseminate the information," Union Science Minister Harsh Vardhan said here on Monday.
Explains M Rajeevan, Secretary, Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, "It will be a two-stage forecast. We will forecast the probability of a thunderstorm over the next two days. Once the event occurs, we will give a forecast on how the thunderstorm will behave in the next six hours and what are the areas where the lightning can strike."
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The MET agency plans to improve its network of data-capture instruments, adding nearly 500 automatic weather stations (100 located in Kerala, which was wrecked by rainfall and floods last year), 10 new X-band radars in the western Himalayan states, and 11 C-band radars in the plains and islands.
The minister on Monday launched a special weather service for Kumbh Mela at Pryagraj, beginning from tomorrow. A smartphone application, named "Kumbh Mela weather service," has been developed to disseminate weather information to people visiting the Kumbh.
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