Criticism on weather forecast should be avoided: IMD

Chennai: Under attack from various quarters, including the Tamil Nadu Government, on the efficacy of its rain forecast, the Regional Meteorological Centre on Saturday said it possess best of equipment through which the loss of lives were minimized during several Cyclones in the past and asked the concerned to avoid criticism of its work.

Targeting the Centre instead of offering constructive criticism is not merely “hurtful” to its employees who are working with utmost dedication, but also amounts to “degrading” Indian technology, a statement issued by the RMC on Saturday night said.

The rare statement from the RMC came after the Tamil Nadu government and several political parties blamed the Indian Meteorological Department for not predicting the magnitude of the rains that lashed southern Tamil Nadu last week. The state had flagged the “gap” in the timely alerts issued between December 15 and 17 – the Orange alert was converted into Red alert (more than 20 cm) when the districts were already swamped with over 40 cm of rainfall.

The state government’s criticism led to a major political controversy with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday strong defending the IMD, saying that the RMC, Chennai did give timely alerts and had warned of heavy rainfall in south Tamil Nadu as early as December 12.

“Of late, the media has been wrongly reporting that the RMC in Chennai doesn’t possess advanced equipment. The super computers, ISRO’s satellites, advanced radars, automatic weather stations, and automatic weather gauge with the IMD are of world-class quality. Such equipment are functional in RMC, Chennai as well,” the statement added.

The RMC said two dopplers at the Centre monitor the weather in Chennai, while three dopplers are deployed for south Tamil Nadu, of which one was developed with ISRO’s X-band Radar technology.

“The best radar technical experts with the IMD are working at the RMC, Chennai and the World Meteorological Organization has certified that IMD’s infrastructure are of world class,” the statement added.

The timely warning issued by the RMC during Cyclone Vardah, Gaja, Nivar, Mandous, and Michaung had minimized loss of lives, the statement said.

Chief Minister M K Stalin and his cabinet colleague Mano Thangaraj had pointed to the “shorter gap” between the issuance of the Red Alert and the actual flooding in the districts. They had also said the amount of rainfall received was much more than what the IMD predicted, while calling for better prediction models.