Was the India Meteorological Department’s jargon to blame for the recent floods in Bengaluru? Though IMD had issued an alert about the heavy rain in the city, it was felt that the civic authorities couldn’t take adequate precautions due to lack of specific information.
Hence, the weather bureau is now considering replacing age-old jargon while predicting weather and make it more people friendly.
Typical jargon — “generally cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers likely” — is the most used phrase in forecasts. The phrase is very general in nature and is not understood by many.
To make the forecast more citizen friendly, IMD-Bengaluru has decided to put this proposal to the Central government and the head office to revise the terminology and weather forecast jargon at their next meeting scheduled in a fortnight. According to officials , the revised weather report could read — “thundershowers with heavy rain between 3 cm and 7 cm could occur in the city during the next 24 hours”.
Weathermen in Bengaluru got this idea after recent floods in the city. Though the department claimed to have sent an alert to BBMP on the downpour, it was criticised for not being specific in its forecast.
The Bengaluru office will also urge the Centre to allocate funds to instal more rain gauges in the city. Citing the example of Sunday (September 3), a senior IMD official said while the city rain gauge recorded mere 0.6 mm rainfall, parts of south and west Bengaluru experienced heavy rainfall.
Since there was no rain gauge in these locations, the readings could not be taken.