Monsoon 2023: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that people in Mumbai will receive weather updates on their mobile phones through SMSes during monsoon this year.
The District Disaster Management Department has set up a control room to provide timely alerts about weather conditions and it has a mechanism to provide real-time weather alerts, the BMC said in a release on Tuesday. "An SMS alert will be sent to citizens during an emergency," it said.
BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Tuesday chaired a meeting with various agencies on disaster management and monsoon preparedness. Officials of BEST, MMRDA, MSRDC, PWD, Mumbai Metro, Railways, NDRF, IMD, MHADA and other agencies along with civic officials attended the meeting.
BMC prepares to tackle monsoon challenges
Chahal directed all departments and agencies to expedite coordination to mitigate the possible challenges during the monsoon, the release said.
Meanwhile, India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated that the onset of monsoon over Kerala is likely to be delayed this year, predicting its arrival on June 4, four days after the normal date predicted on June 1.
"Southwest monsoon normally sets in over Kerala on June 1 with a standard deviation of about 7 days. India Meteorological Department (IMD) has been issuing operational forecasts for the date of monsoon onset over Kerala from 2005 onwards. An indigenously developed state-of-the-art statistical model with a model error of +- 4 days is used for the purpose," IMD stated.
Last year, the monsoon over Kerala occurred on May 29, two days after IMD's prediction on May 27. According to the weather agency, the operational forecasts of the date of monsoon onset over Kerala during the past 18 years (2005-2022) were proved to be correct except in 2015.
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As per the IMD, the six predictors of monsoon onset used in the models are:
- Minimum Temperatures over Northwest India
- Pre-monsoon rainfall peak over the south Peninsula
- Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) over the South China Sea
- Lower tropospheric zonal wind over Southeast Indian Ocean
- Mean sea level pressure over Subtropical NW Pacific Ocean
- Upper tropospheric zonal wind over North East Indian Ocean
The southwest monsoon over the Indian mainland is marked by monsoon onset over Kerala and is an important indicator characterizing the transition from a hot and dry season to a rainy season.
It should be mentioned here that IMD defines average, or normal, rainfall as between 96% and 104% of a 50-year average of 88 centimetres (35 inches) for the season. Last year, monsoon rains were 106% of the average, strengthening food grain output in 2022-23.
(With inputs from agencies)
