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Chandigarh: IMD staff gave up sleep to ensure your safety
The department’s forecasting station in its Sector 39 office is manned round the clock; with four shifts of six hours each, two to three employees are assigned for each shift
As the city received over half of its yearly rain quota in just 60 hours, India Meteorological Department (IMD) staff worked overtime, with at least one official manning the observation seat throughout.
AK Singh had assumed charge of IMD Chandigarh director on June 17 after the posted director went on leave.
“Adversity brings out the best in us. I have not slept for three days and staff had to cancel their weekly leaves,” he said, even as his phone kept ringing even on Tuesday, when things had seemingly started to settle down.
Singh said that his first assignment for MeT was in 2004, when a tsunami had struck coastal India.
“I was posted at Andaman and Nicobar Islands at the time. So, I have had some experience dealing with extreme weather phenomenon,” he added.
The department’s forecasting station in its Sector 39 office is manned round the clock. There are four shifts of six hours each and around two to three employees are assigned for each shift, except for the late night one, which has only one employee present. The office uses two rain gauges for collecting data.
With another observatory at the airport, the department has automatic weather stations for Panchkula and Mohali.
As per officials, although rain data from manual and automatic gauges is considered, the manual one maintains higher accuracy.
Observations are taken every three hours and uploaded, where the complete IMD network works in sync. Calculations are made using rainwater collected in a beaker, in mm. The manual gauge has to be emptied between observations. Synoptic observations are taken every six hours.
Although bigger cities, like Delhi, have multiple stations, the data from the Sector 39 observatory is considered for the entire Chandigarh. This station also churns out majority of data for Haryana and Punjab.
The chief secretary of Punjab had shown up for a meeting at the IMD office on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the impact of the rains on Punjab. Disaster management department of Haryana had also sought department’s help during the recent rains.
Forecasting station officials said people called them to inquire about the weather during the ordeal. While most calls are from media or other officials, residents who want to plan events also contact them.
In a week or so, investment company officials are expected to show up at the office, for claims related to property and vehicles damaged during the rains.
