<p>The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is set to issue weather forecast at the block-level to help farmers prepare better for the crops.<br /><br />“We will issue experimental forecast for 100 blocks by December. We hope to cover the entire country by 2019,” Secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences M Rajeevan told DH on the sidelines of a function here.<br /><br />The weather agency has prepared experimental forecasts for 12 km x 12 km patches of land for several hundred blocks. In the next step, operational forecast will be made for 100 selected blocks, which will gradually be extended to 6,500 blocks all over the country. The IMD will also create its own district centres for disseminating information.<br /><br />Since the work involves a huge amount of computing, the IMD has ordered a 10-15 petaflop Cray supercomputer worth Rs 450 crore. The mammoth number cruncher will be installed at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, Noida, by November. The second unit of the supercomputer will be set up at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune. The supercomputer will be used to run the model twice daily.<br /><br />In the last three years, the Met department generated experimental forecasts for 300 odd blocks using the old weather models on a trial basis.<br /><br />Heavy rain lashes Tamil Nadu<br /><br />Normal life was affected in Tamil Nadu after heavy rain lashed several districts, with the Met department predicting more downpour in then next two days, DHNS reports from Chennai. However, Vellore, Thiruvallur and Cuddalore districts continued to reel under severe heatwave conditions with the temperature touching 40 degrees Celsius. <br /><br />A senior weather official told DH that as the upper air cyclonic circulation lies over the southeast Bay of Bengal and its neighbourhood, there will more rainfall in several places in the state.<br /><br /></p>
<p>The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is set to issue weather forecast at the block-level to help farmers prepare better for the crops.<br /><br />“We will issue experimental forecast for 100 blocks by December. We hope to cover the entire country by 2019,” Secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences M Rajeevan told DH on the sidelines of a function here.<br /><br />The weather agency has prepared experimental forecasts for 12 km x 12 km patches of land for several hundred blocks. In the next step, operational forecast will be made for 100 selected blocks, which will gradually be extended to 6,500 blocks all over the country. The IMD will also create its own district centres for disseminating information.<br /><br />Since the work involves a huge amount of computing, the IMD has ordered a 10-15 petaflop Cray supercomputer worth Rs 450 crore. The mammoth number cruncher will be installed at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, Noida, by November. The second unit of the supercomputer will be set up at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune. The supercomputer will be used to run the model twice daily.<br /><br />In the last three years, the Met department generated experimental forecasts for 300 odd blocks using the old weather models on a trial basis.<br /><br />Heavy rain lashes Tamil Nadu<br /><br />Normal life was affected in Tamil Nadu after heavy rain lashed several districts, with the Met department predicting more downpour in then next two days, DHNS reports from Chennai. However, Vellore, Thiruvallur and Cuddalore districts continued to reel under severe heatwave conditions with the temperature touching 40 degrees Celsius. <br /><br />A senior weather official told DH that as the upper air cyclonic circulation lies over the southeast Bay of Bengal and its neighbourhood, there will more rainfall in several places in the state.<br /><br /></p>
