IMD to issue seasonal health warnings soon

Soon, India Meteorological Department, Bengaluru, will also be issuing health warnings.

At present, the health related seasonal warnings are issued only by IMD-Pune (head office), which is now working on decentralising the health warning mechanism.

The weathermen will have meetings with the health department on how to disseminate information. At present, the IMD is working on collecting data from all centres across India. There are 27 IMD centres in India and IMD-Pune is presently issuing health advisory and warnings for Malaria. Each centre will be able to issue warning for the entire state and specific regions.

“We cannot issue warnings for each district. Soon, the other centres will be assigned the task of issuing season-based warnings in coordination with the local health departments. Issuing health alerts is not the job of the weather department alone. Lot of information is required from the health department,” said D S Pai, Scientist-F, Head of Climate Research and Services, IMD, Pune.

This decision has been taken because the weather is not uniform across the country. It has also been noticed that there are changes in temperature in each region.For example, heavy rain is reported in north Karnataka, but south Karnataka is experiencing a hot dry spell. Similarly, some parts of north India are experiencing heat wave and some others have received rainfall. Many local factors play a crucial role in changing temperatures and they are also important while assessing health parameters, he said.

He said soon, diseases specific to other seasons will be covered and so, each centre will be able to issue alerts,
especially during the monsoon. Work in this direction is happening at a rapid pace as
it is an essential service, Pai said.

Geeta Agnihotri, director incharge of IMD-Bengaluru, said to issue warnings, temperature, humidity and local conditions are crucial factors. Warnings for dengue have also been sought for.