Network for the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) and Pakistan’s forecasting apparatus has long been past due for an upgrade. The currently being used equipment by the PMD is a little out-of-date and is simply used to offer a forecast for 1 and 2 days and an outlook for 3 to 5 days for the most part.
For stakeholders who are longing to want information from the PMD for short-term operations as well as medium-to-long-term scheduling, things necessitate getting better at the Met Department.
Pakistan Meteorological Department to Upgrade Its Systems
An amount of $135 million soft loans will be given by the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank to strengthen the PMD’s skill to give reliable and well-timed weather, hydrological and climate information and services to customer communities and departments.
Outdated and dysfunctional radars will either be removed or substitute for this upgrade. To cover more than 95% of the country at least 14 new radars will be supplied. The locations of most of these radars are predictable to be in distant areas with small population levels.
The up gradation of the weather forecasting tools and equipment at the PMD is certainly a welcome step and a constructive move.
A Necessary Upgrade
Last year on 1st June, when a windstorm that distressed Islamabad and the parts of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, PMD failed to report in advance about it. The Prime Minister had demanded a report on this failure. After the submission of the report at the PM’s House agreed on getting the newest weather radars and asked the PMD to present a wide-ranging plan in this regard.
The upgraded equipment is anticipated to guide to better hydro-meteorological information, making stronger forecasting and early-warning approaches and quick broadcasting of weather, climate and hydrological info to end-users.
Lead time and enhanced accuracy and for weather conditions forecasts and word of warning are one of the key pointers of this project. It is predictable to be put into practice over a time period of 5 years.
Pakistan has experienced severe weather events mostly because of climate change. The figure and intensity of such events will just rise in the upcoming years. So, the early on the improvement of weather forecast equipment and the network is extremely vital in order to avoid human and assets loss by forecasting changes in climate pattern and issuing alerts in advance.
