IMD strengthens early warning systems under Mission Mausam: Doppler radars, AWS, flood forecasting, tsunami alerts

What happened: Mission Mausam upgrades IMD and INCOIS early warning for weather, floods, and tsunamis

The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) strengthened India’s multi-hazard early warning capabilities under Mission Mausam through the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS). IMD improved severe weather forecasting through expansion of weather observation assets. For floods, IMD uses daily 7-day Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts issued by Flood Meteorological Offices to support flood monitoring and coordination with the Central Water Commission. For tsunamis, INCOIS acts as the designated Tsunami Service Provider for Indian Ocean Rim nations and uses real-time ocean observations and multi-channel dissemination to issue alerts.

IMD strengthened observational coverage for better severe weather forecasting

IMD added 50 Doppler Weather Radars, 1,008 Automatic Weather Stations, and 6,885 rain gauge stations across India under Mission Mausam. The MoES communication links these observation upgrades to improved severe weather forecast accuracy by 40–50% over the past decade, along with significant reductions in cyclone track, landfall, and intensity errors.

Flood forecasting with Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts and integrated flood warning systems

IMD’s flood monitoring uses Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts (QPF), which are quantitative rainfall forecasts used in flood risk operations. IMD’s 25 Flood Meteorological Offices issue daily 7-day QPF for 220 sub-basins. The QPF outputs support the Central Water Commission. IMD also operates integrated flood warning systems in Chennai and Mumbai.