JOIN USThe Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), planning to set up the regional meteorological centre in Gadag, has already started an automatic weather station and pilot baloon observation system. Work is in progress on the first phase of construction of the field maintenance unit required for the automatic weather station at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore. More plans are in the offing as the IMD will implement its modernisation project in 2012, aiming to establish a network of all the regional centres.
The weather station is the second oldest set up by the British in Karnataka, the first being at Bangalore. While the regional meteorological centre in Bangalore is central to observing and recording the weather details in south Karnataka, Gadag will serve as the major meteorological centre for north and mid-Karnataka.
Gadag, situated 659.8 m above MSL (mean sea level) and centrally on the Mumbai-Chennai air route, covers Haveri, Bagalkot and Dharwad district. Koppal, Raichur and other districts will also come under the Gadag centre soon.
Being one of the few automatic weather stations in the State, operating since January 19, it sends details pertaining to temperature, speed, pressure and direction of wind, rains and other weather conditions on hourly basis to the meteorological centre in Pune.
The pilot baloon observation system, the only such system in north Karnataka, studies speed and direction of the wind, and the information will help in directing air traffic. The IMD is also contemplating a radar services on the lines of the centre in Bangalore.
Senior officer at the weather station in Gadag, Nataraj Savadi and assistant, Raju Rokhade said the weather station, which so far operated from a rented building on the premises of the agriculture market, would shift to the new centre once the construction and installation works are over.