IMD Aiding Neighbours in Early Warning System For Extreme Weather

According  to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD),Director General, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra ,India is helping five of its neighbouring countries to develop early  warning systems to reduce the loss of life and property due to adverse extreme weather phenomena.

Help to five neighbouring countries under the UN  Initiative 

• India has identified five of its neighbouring countries- Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Mauritius as part of the 'Early Warnings for All' initiative announced by the United Nations in 2022. 
• The United Nations launched the Early Warnings for All in November 2022 at the Conference of Parties (COP) 27 meeting at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. 
• The main aim of the  Early Warnings for All initiative was to establish a string of early warning systems across the globe by 2027 so as to provide early warning to people about hazardous weather, water, and climate events. Early warning systems can help save people's lives.
• The United Nations has identified 30 countries worldwide where an early warning system will be installed in the first phase of the initiative. Priority will be given to installing the system in Small island developing countries and least developed countries.
• According to a recent report by the Meteorological Organization (WMO), around 52 per cent of the world's countries (101 countries)have established multi-hazard early warning systems.

How will IMD help these countries?

• India, through IMD, will help these countries by providing technical support to build and strengthen their meteorological observations. 
• The IMD will help these five countries set up meteorological observatories, allow them access to IMD’s numerical models, and create a decision-support system and computing power.
• The IMD will provide forecasts and warnings. 
• The IMD is developing a system for data exchange and warning dissemination in collaboration with the communication ministries of the respective nations.

Global Hazards of Extreme Weather Events 

• Extreme weather events refer to the unexpected occurrence of severe weather conditions that can have a devastating impact on people, agriculture, and natural ecosystems.
•  Weather-related extreme events are mainly short-lived, but their intensity is very severe. Some examples of extreme weather-related events are heat waves, floods, heavy downpours, tornadoes, tropical cyclones, and snowfall.
•  Scientists expect more extreme weather-related events due to global warming. The phenomena of global warming have accelerated climate change on Earth. This will worsen the frequency, intensity, and impacts of some types of extreme weather events.
• According to the World Meteorological Organisation, natural disasters increased by over five times between 1970 and 2019. 

Impact of Extreme Weather-related Events 

In a study published by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the incidences of extreme weather-related events have increased exponentially, causing severe economic and ecological disasters and loss of life. Some of the highlights of the report 

• Among all extreme weather-related events, the most harm to people and economies has come from water-related disasters like frequent tropical cyclones.
• From 1970 to 2021, nearly 12,000 weather, climate, or water-related disasters were recorded, resulting in over two million deaths and economic losses of around $4.3 trillion.
• Between 2015 and 2022, around 41,789 people have died annually.
• Around 130 million people in the world are being affected by weather-related disasters, and the number is rising every year.
• From 2013 to 2022, more than 146,000 people lost their lives due to disasters, and over 911 million were directly affected in Asia.. 
• Extreme weather changes have caused an estimated $36 billion in economic damages. In 2022, mostly due to flooding and storms.
• The report expects the world to face 560 medium to large scale disasters by 2030.

Indian Meteorological Department 

The Indian Meteorological Department was set up in 1875 by the government of India.

It is the country's national meteorological service and the principal government agency for all weather and climate services.

It comes under the Union Ministry of Earth Science.

The IMD's headquarters was initially set up in Kolkata.It was later shifted to Shimla, then Pune, and finally to New Delhi.

Director General- Mrutyunjay Mohapatra