Weather radar to be inaugurated at PMD soon, says minister

ISLAMABAD: A weather surveillance radar will soon be inaugurated at the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) in Islamabad.

This was announced by Minister for Aviation Chaudhry Ghulam Sarwar Khan here on Thursday.

He said the weather department has been working on enhancing weather forecasting and warning capabilities with the help of Jaoan International Cooperating Agency (JICA) and the Government of Japan.

Under the project “Establishment of Specialized Medium-Range weather Forecasting Centre (SMRFC) and Strengthening of Weather Forecasting System in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan” sponsored by JICA, the weather radar, and Wind Profiler and High-Performance Computing Cluster systems have been installed at the PMD.

The main objective of this project is to make available medium range weather forecasts (country wide, 3-10 days) using higher performance computing system.

The PMD will now be capable of timely dissemination of accurate severe weather forecast and warnings to districts/communities of Pakistan.

It will also be able to measure rainfall intensity and detect the weather situation more accurately.