Rajya Sabha MP and BJP West Bengal president Samik Bhattacharya raised a question (numbered Unstarred Question No. 514) in the upper house seeking information on the weather forecasts by the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Kolkata. His question was directed to the Minister of Earth Sciences.
In his multi-pointer question, Samik Bhattacharya asked the minister to state the level of accuracy of weather predictions by the Kolkata RMC over the span of the last three years and also asked if the forecasts are at par with national and international standards. Bhattacharya also asked about the steps being taken by the RMC in Kolkata to increase its level of accuracy, the current condition of infrastructure at the RMC office, along with staffing, vacancies and research prospects of the station.
Lastly, Samik Bhattacharya asked about the number of weather warnings issued by the regional weather office and the rate of success of the warnings.
What was the government's reply?
The Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh replied to Samik Bhattacharya's unstarred question on December 4.
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The reply from the ministry stated that, "The level of accuracy of weather forecasts issued by the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Kolkata over the past three years for different severe weather events such as heavy rainfall, heat wave, thunderstorm and dense fog at district and city levels for the State during last 3-years of 2022-2024 in terms of percentage correct are 84%, 95%, 62% and 90%, respectively against their national averages of 85%, 97%, 88% and 70%."
On the infrastructure and research capabilities of RMC Kolkata, the ministry said, "Different important measures taken in recent years to improve the forecast service." The improvements stated by the ministry are, "Expansion of the observation network, including installation of new automatic weather stations, multi-hazard impact-based and risk-based warning, implementation of impact-based forecast for different sectors, use of a new decision support system (DSS) for data analysis and forecast decision in nowcasting (for a few hours) to short to medium range forecasting (up to a few days)MoU with various academic institutions for research and development works and providing internships."
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The ministry notified that RMC Kolkata possesses a vast array of infrastructure and instruments. "Weather monitoring, analysis, and forecasting systems, multi-hazard early warning GIS-based DSS, Area Cyclone Warning Centre (ACWC) in Kolkata, Two Flood Met offices and one Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) Met Unit, State Agromet Advisory Centre (SAMC), 4 Airports Meteorological Offices in West Bengal along with the Metrological Watch Office at Kolkata," and numerous more full-time and part-time observatories, Automated Weather Stations (AWS), Automated Rain Gauge Stations (ARG) and 3 high wind speed recorders (HWSR) covering the entire coast.
On employee strength and vacancies, the ministry has informed that 334 officials are working in RMC Kolkata, and 63 positions lie vacant. Total number of severe weather warnings issued during 2022-2024 for West Bengal is 1757, 723, 877, 2681, and 4868, and the accuracy rate in 83%, the ministry informed.
