The meteorological office in Patna. Picture by Jai Prakash

Patna, May 26: The Patna Meteorological Office, to hone the accuracy and alacrity of weather forecast, is likely to commission its Doppler radar next Monday.

This radar would help weathermen to accurately forecast the weather parameters, including rainfall, wind speed, direction, gusty winds, squalls and thunderstorms, six hours in advance.

The prediction of squall and other weather conditions would help issue alerts to people residing in the areas that are likely to be hit by thunderstorms.

This forecast will help reduce the chances of losing human lives.

A state-of-the-art facility fitted with Doppler radar at Phulwarisharif area is in the final stages of trial.

This radar would help the weathermen to accurately forecast the weather parameters, including rainfall, wind speed, direction, gusty winds, squalls and thunderstorms, six hours in advance.

The predication of squall and other weather conditions would help issue alerts to people residing in the areas that are likely to be hit by thunderstorms. This will help in reducing the chances of loss of human lives.

Animesh Chanda, the director of Patna Met department, said: “A new building, with a cost component of around Rs 20 crore, including equipment and establishment cost, is ready and is likely to be commissioned from May 30.”

Chanda said: “This Doppler radar has a coverage radius of 500km from the base. It will cover the entire state, Jharkhand and also parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and Chhattisgarh.”

He said: “This ultra-modern gadget will be used for short-range forecasting for now. It will assist in detection of thunderclouds and their movement within this range. Moreover, it will help in forecasting the maximum extent of rainfall for the next six hours at any place in its range.”

A special software, costing around Rs 55.72 lakh, has also been purchased for interpreting the data received from the radar. Chanda said: “To begin with, this radar will be programmed for generating observation data on hourly basis, but it can be programmed to give data even at lesser duration.”

He added: “This radar will be functional 24x7 and expert manpower would be provided to run it. The coverage radius being 500km, this Doppler radar will issue alerts when thunderclouds from other parts of neighbouring states are headed towards Patna or other regions of the state.”

India has imported 12 such radars from China, each costing over Rs 6 crore. The Patna Met office is seventh in the country to have this state-of-the-art equipment after Delhi, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Chennai, Nagpur, Agartala. Two more Doppler radars would be installed at Lucknow and Patiala.

Of late, squalls and thunderstorms are frequently hitting the state, including the capital. Three back-to-back squalls last week left the city ravaged and last Wednesday’s thunderstorm killed around 12 people in various parts of the state.

Sources at Patna Met office said at present, the forecast of cloud formation is done without any sophisticated equipment.

However, the Doppler radar would be a one-stop solution for forecasting squalls and thunderstorms.