Heatwave Alerts By IMD

Heatwave Alerts By IMD

Subject: Environment

Section: Climate change

Context- Heatwave to Intensify in Next Five Days in Several Parts of Country, Orange Alert for 3 States.

Concept-

• The ongoing heatwave sweeping through vast swathes of the country will intensify in the next five days, with the IMD issuing an “orange” alert for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra, and predicting a rise of another two degrees Celsius in the northwest region.

Colour- Coded Weather Warning:

• It is issued by the IMD whose objective is to alert people ahead of severe or hazardous weather which has the potential to cause damage, widespread disruption or danger to life.
• Warnings are updated daily.
• The IMD uses 4 colour codes are:
  • Green (All is well): No advisory is issued.
  • Yellow (Be Aware): Yellow indicates severely bad weather spanning across several days. It also suggests that the weather could change for the worse, causing disruption in day-to-day activities.
  • Orange/Amber (Be prepared): The orange alert is issued as a warning of extremely bad weather with the potential of disruption in commute with road and rail closures, and interruption of power supply.
  • Red (Take Action): When the extremely bad weather conditions are certainly going to disrupt travel and power and have significant risk to life, the red alert is issued.
• These alerts are universal in nature and are also issued during floods, depending on the amount of water rising above land/in a river as a result of torrential rainfall.
  • For e.g., when the water in a river is ‘above normal’ level, or between the ‘warning’ and ‘danger’ levels, a yellow alert is issued.

About India Meteorological Department:

• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is an agency of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India.
• It is the principal agency responsible for meteorological observations, weather forecasting and seismology.
• IMD is headquartered in Delhi and operates hundreds of observation stations across India and Antarctica.
• Regional offices are at Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Nagpur, Guwahati and New Delhi.
• IMD is also one of the six Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres of the World Meteorological Organisation.
  • It is regional nodal agency for forecasting, naming and disseminating warnings about tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean north of the Equator including the Malacca Straits, the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.
• IMD collaborates with other agencies such as the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting and the National Institute of Ocean Technology.
• IMD also operates seismic monitoring centres at key locations for earthquake monitoring and measurements.
• IMD undertakes observations, communications, forecasting and weather services.
  • In collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation, the IMD also uses the IRS series and the Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) for weather monitoring of the Indian subcontinent.
  • IMD was first weather bureau of a developing country to develop and maintain its own satellite system.
  • IMD Forecasts monsoon based on:
    • Sea Surface Temperature
    • ENSO
    • Relative Humidity
    • Wind Direction
    • Wind Speed
    • Pressure Patterns
    • Cloud Cover etc.

****For further reading refer to Optimize Ias DPN 28th April 2022.