Earth Sciences Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday launched a mobile application which will provide city-wise weather forecasts, nowcasts and other warnings.
The mobile application, 'Mausam', has been designed and developed jointly by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Speaking at the event, Vardhan said huge financial investments are needed, at least twice the present budget, to augment observational networks, replace old ships and procure new computing resources.
'Mausam' is available both on Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store.
The app will offer different services.
It will provide current weather information, including temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, for 200 cities. The information will be updated eight times a day.
It will also issue nowcasts, three-hourly warnings, for local weather phenomena and their intensity for about 800 stations and districts. In case of severe weather, its impact will also be included in the warning.
The app will provide weather forecast for the next seven days for around 450 cities in India. Weather information of the past 24 hours will also be available on the app.
It also has a system which will issue colour-coded alerts (red, yellow, orange) for all districts twice a day for up to five days to warn people ahead of dangerous weather.
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