New Delhi, 16 Jan: In a bid to strengthen hyperlocal, real-time weather forecasting, the Minister of Earth Science, Jitendra Singh, on Thursday announced the launch of 200 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) across four major metropolitan cities.
Speaking at the 151 foundation day celebration of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the minister said that 50 AWS will be installed each in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Pune this year to improve weather prediction and bolster disaster preparedness in these densely populated urban regions.
The dense network of weather monitoring stations will provide granular and high-resolution spatial data, enabling more accurate prediction of sudden downpours, thunderstorms, extreme heat events, and rapid pressure changes, the minister added.
Singh stressed that the impact of data-driven forecasting goes beyond disaster risk reduction; it enables decision-making in sectors impacted by weather data, including agriculture, aviation, and urban planning.
The event also saw the launch of two online portals, KALP and SANKALP, an extension of the Mission Mausaum, a project rolled out last year to assist Indian farmers in crop management.
According to officials from the Ministry, KALP is a Krishi Advisory platform based on location-specific weather predictions, designed to provide agrometeorological advisories tailored to crop type and growth stage.
The portal automatically captures a farmer’s location and provides a five-day weather forecast, covering key parameters such as temperature, humidity, rainfall, cloud cover, wind speed, and wind direction. Farmers can also manually enter their location at the panchayat level.
Based on these assessments, the system generates impact-based advisories for crop management, including guidance on weather-linked disease risks and recommendations on suitable pesticides or insecticides to prevent infection. The advisories are issued in both Hindi and English, with a focus on pest management and reducing weather-induced crop losses, noted the officials.
The portal is similar to the Meghdoot app launched by the then Minister of Earth Science, Science and Technology, Harsh Vardhan, to provide location, crop, and livestock-specific weather-based agro advisories to farmers across 150 districts in local languages.