India’s national weather agency on Monday marked its 150th foundation day by launching the latest version of the homegrown mobile app that officials said was designed to provide weather information and forecasts anytime for any site across the country.
The Mausam Gram service available through the India Meteorology Department’s Mausam mobile app will provide the public — through clicks on a map — weather data, forecasts and warnings for any site in the country, including the oceanic areas off the coastline, the officials said.
“Through this platform, the IMD will potentially be reaching out to every household,” Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, the IMD’s director-general, said. “We’ve integrated multiple information services into the latest version of this app.”
The platform accessible through English, Hindi and 12 regional languages, is designed to provide hourly, three-hourly and six-hourly forecasts up to 10 days, covering rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind and cloud conditions. “Users may list a site by name, pincode, or latitude-longitude, or simply click on the map to access the local weather data,” Mohapatra said.
The IMD also announced a Panchayat Mausam Seva, a service that will provide weather alerts and guide farmers across the country with information relevant to sowing, transplantation, application of irrigation, and fertilisers.
The new service, weather scientists say, may be viewed as the new version of agrometeorology services available from the IMD to farmers for decades. Crop-related weather information is intended to reduce farm input costs
and crop loss owing to aberrant weather through timely information.
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who was the chief guest at the IMD’s 150th-day function, launched the Mausam and Panchayat Mausam Seva services and a book outlining the evolution of services from the IMD since it began issuing port weather warnings in 1865.
The IMD had started aviation weather forecasts in 1911, agrometeorology services in 1945, storm surge warnings in 1977, mountain weather services for the Himalayas in 1998, coastal inundation forecasts in 2013, air quality forecasts in 2018, and urban meteorological services in 2020.
