No rain on Tuesday prompts Punekars to question IMD alert
Although the IMD clarified that the heavy rain alert was only meant for the ghat and not city areas, many people still questioned the generalisation of the warning as per administrative divisions rather than geographical areas
While the district administration declared a holiday for all schools in Pune district on Tuesday, July 9, after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red (heavy rain) alert for the Pune and Satara districts, there was no rain in Pune district throughout the day on Tuesday leading many people to question the alert issued by the IMD. Although the IMD clarified that the heavy rain alert was only meant for the ghat and not city areas, many people still questioned the generalisation of the warning as per administrative divisions rather than geographical areas.
At around 10.30 pm on Monday, the district administration issued an order stating that due to the red alert for the Pune and Satara districts, it had decided to declare a holiday for all schools in Pune district on Tuesday, July 9. On Tuesday however, there were clear skies instead of rain which prompted people to raise questions about the veracity of the weather forecast and the kind of communication between government departments.
Vitthal Banote, district disaster management officer, said, “As per the information received by the state disaster management cell, a red alert for Pune city was issued by the IMD for July 8 but it was applicable till the morning of July 9. In the evening on Monday, rainfall activity increased in Pune particularly in the city areas. Considering the situation in the neighbouring districts like Raigad, Thane and Mumbai, the district administration decided to declare a holiday on July 9 with children’s safety in mind. Initially, the holiday was issued for schools in the ghat areas including Maval, Mulshi, Junnar, Khed and Velhe tehsils. But to prevent confusion, the holiday was later extended to city areas as well.”
Vineet Kumar, scientist from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, on Tuesday tweeted that the IMD had issued the alert for Pune’s ghat areas only. As both the ghats and the city come under Pune district, the red alert was issued in keeping with the colour scale but it was clearly mentioned in the bulletin that the alert was for the ghats only
Anupam Kashyapi, former head of the weather and forecasting division, IMD Pune, said that warnings need to be interpreted carefully and that the red alert warning was only for the ghat section and not the city areas.
The clarification by the district administration and weather experts notwithstanding, the dichotomy does make a case for the possibility of flaws in weather forecasts and internal communication between government departments. There have been many occasions when weather warnings have gone wrong. A couple of times in June this year, alerts were issued for moderate to heavy rainfall in Pune but not much rain was received in reality. On July 8 too, despite a red alert, rain received in the ghat section was within two digits in most areas.
The majority view is that rainfall being a geographical phenomenon, warnings need to be issued as per geographical areas. A weather expert on condition of anonymity said that the IMD needs to classify warnings for the ghat section and the city areas. Despite multiple efforts, K S Hosalikar, head of climate services and research, IMD Pune, remained unavailable for comment.
