Monsoon 2023: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that people in Mumbai will receive weather updates on their mobile phones via SMS during monsoon this year.
The BMC, in a release on Tuesday, said the district disaster management department has set up a control room to provide timely alerts about weather conditions and it has a mechanism in place to provide weather alerts in real time. It added, “An SMS alert will be sent to citizens during the emergency.”
BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Tuesday chaired a meeting with various agencies on disaster management and monsoon preparedness. Officials from BEST, MMRDA, MSRDC, PWD, Mumbai Metro, Railways, NDRF, IMD, MHADA and other agencies attended the meeting.
BMC prepared to deal with the challenges of monsoon
The release said Chahal directed all departments and agencies to expedite coordination to mitigate potential challenges during the monsoon.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said 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 prediction of June 1.
“The southwest monsoon generally sets over Kerala on June 1 with a standard deviation of about 7 days. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has been issuing operational forecasts for the monsoon onset date over Kerala since 2005. An indigenously developed state-of-the-art statistical model with a model error of +- 4 days is used, the IMD said.
Last year, the monsoon arrived in Kerala on May 29, two days after the IMD’s prediction of May 27. According to the weather agency, the operational forecasts of the monsoon onset date over Kerala during the last 18 years (2005–2022) were proven. Except in 2015 to be exact.
Read also: IMD says India will see normal monsoon this year despite El Nino conditions
According to the IMD, there are six predictors of monsoon onset used in the model:
- Minimum temperature in North West India
- Pre-monsoon rains peak over South Peninsula
- Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) over the South China Sea.
- Low tropospheric zonal wind over the Southeast Indian Ocean
- Mean sea level pressure over the subtropical NW Pacific Ocean
- upper tropospheric zonal wind over the northeast Indian Ocean
The southwest monsoon over the Indian mainland is marked by the onset of the monsoon over Kerala and is an important indicator of the transition from a hot and dry season to a rainy season.
It should be mentioned here that the IMD defines average or normal rainfall as between 96% and 104% of the 50-year average of 88 cm (35 in) for the season. Last year, monsoon rains were 106% of average, boosting foodgrain production in 2022-23.
(with inputs from agencies)