India`s Weather Forecast To Get More Precise As IMD Plans New Radars Across Country-OxBig News Network

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) will install new radars in various areas of the nation with the aim of improving the forecasts, as per a statement from the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Hon’ble MoS (I/C), #MoES, @DrJitendraSingh answered a question through a written reply in Lok Sabha on ‘INSTALLATION OF NEW RADAR SYSTEM’.

The @Indiametdept has planned new radars across the country. Tentative sites have been selected where the radars are planned to be installed… pic.twitter.com/iFfYNDi1tp

— MoES GoI (@moesgoi) April 3, 2025

The tentative sites, as per the release from the Ministry, where the radars are planned to be installed are:

• 12 no. of C-Band Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) at Raipur, Mangalore, Ranchi, Lakshadweep, Malda, Aurangabad, Balasore, Sambalpur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Rupsi, and Port Blair.
• 12 no. of X-Band DWRs at Pune, Kolkata, Purnea, Varanasi, Wayanad, Bhubaneswar, Dharwad, Lahaul &Spiti, Aligarh (GoUP), Azamgarh (GoUP), Jhansi (GoUP), Lucknow (GoUP).
• 10 no. of X-Band DWRs for North East tentatively at Jorhat, Tezpur, Aizawl, Namsai, Silchar, Imphal, Dimapur, Mandala Top, Central Arunachal Pradesh, & Guwahati.
• 53 radars (8 S-Band, 20 C-Band, and 25 X-Band) are also planned to be installed across the country under the Mission Mausam.  

“The locations of the DWRs have been arrived upon considering the gap areas in the coverage of the existing DWR network,” the release said. 

Additionally, apart from the proposed improvement in the radar coverage, other observation systems like wind profilers, radio sonde or radio wind, microwave radiometers, and more, are also planned under the Mission Mausam. 

The implementation of the Mausam Mission is likely to help in the following ways:

• In capturing and monitoring all the weather events happening in the country, so that no weather system will go undetected.
• Improve the frequency of nowcasting extreme weather such as thunderstorms, lightning, strong winds, and more, from three hours to one hour.
• Improve the short and medium range weather forecast accuracy by about 5 to 10 percent.
• Improve air quality forecasts by about 5 to 10% in the major metro cities.

Furthermore, the release stated that the entire of India will be under radar coverage within the next two to three years.