New Delhi, July 11 (PTI) Under fire for missing weather forecasts, Earth Sciences Secretary M Ravichandran on Monday made a strong pitch for high frequency observations to better understand cloud dynamics.
The weather office has missed rainfall predictions for the national capital for the past few weeks and even on Monday when it had forecast little rain till Saturday.
Actually, we need more science. We need more high frequency observations for better forecasts, particularly for regions such as Delhi, Ravichandran said.
He said the Delhi region is the convergence point for easterly winds coming from the Bay of Bengal and the low pressure areas and it was always difficult to have an accurate forecast for this border region.
The National Capital Region has 80 per cent cloud cover, but did not experience rainfall, Ravichandran said, adding that similar conditions in hilly areas would have certainly resulted in showers.
He said for Delhi, high frequency weather observations and better understanding of cloud dynamics was required for improved forecasts.
The Earth Sciences secretary said there was no science yet to predict highly localised rainfall events that resulted in the tragedy at the Amarnath cave shrine Friday evening when 17 people were killed and several feared washed away due to flash floods.
He said extreme rainfall events were on the rise in the country due to change in climatic conditions and more weather observations were required to understand such processes.
We do not have science to forecast isolated localised heavy rainfall. Like earthquakes, we do not have the science to predict, he said.
