First of its Kind Real Time Weather Radar to Come into Operation Soon

Nepal is soon going to have better weather forecasts and real time data on atmospheric weather conditions as the government is working to install three, first of its kind weather radars in different areas of the country, reports The Kathmandu Post.

According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DoHM), the radar will be installed in Rata Nangala of Surkhet in the western region, Ribdikot of Palpa in the central region and Rametar of Udayapur in the eastern region.

Each radar costs around Rs. 180 million. They will be scanning the sky to feed back the data related to weather conditions.

DoHM Director General Rishi Ram Sharma said, “These stations will upgrade our weather information greatly. For the first time, we will be able to give real time data on atmospheric weather.”

Sharma informed, “Radar scans the whole sky and finds out positioning of clouds, its types, and their nature for rain or hailstorm, also the place where it has rained along with the duration of rainfall.”

The information from these radar will also be useful for other sectors such as aviation, disaster alert and agriculture sector. As weather radars can inform about position of cloud, thunders or cumulonimbus clouds in advance, the flights can avoid them.

Sharma added that the radar can generate data, for example, on the duration, amount and areas where rainfall has occurred. This can assist vulnerable communities in dealing with natural disaster.

DoHM has already completed the installation of the weather radar in Surkhet with the financial assistance of the World Bank under the Building Resilience to Climate-Related hazards (BRCH) Disaster Project. It is to be commissioned soon.

The remaining radars are being funded by the government and will be operational by next year.