Karnataka to get its first Doppler radar by this year to for better weather forecasting

The city of Bengaluru will get a C-band Doppler Weather Radar this year to enable better weather forecasting, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje has said. The Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Labour & Employment took to X to share that India Meteorological Department (IMD) has agreed to her request to install the Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) in the state capital.

Posting a letter written to her by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Jitendra Singh, who is also in charge of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Karandlaje said, "We will now be able to predict our weather with accuracy. Following my request, the IMD has greenlit the installation of a Doppler radar in the city, scheduled to be operational by year-end. This is a major step towards better weather forecasting & preparedness for natural disasters."

In his letter, Jitendra Singh said the radar will have an operational range of 250 km and will be installed in Bengaluru this year. He also mentioned that the site for the radar installation has already been identified and the Centre had informed the state government to acquire the site.

"The proposed C-band DWR in Bengaluru will not only help in protecting the state infrastructure and state economies during natural disasters but also significantly enhance the accuracy of weather forecasts and provide the early warning of severe weather conditions," he wrote.

According to a news report published a year ago, Karnataka was the only state in South India not to possess this forecasting system and although it was first proposed in 2007 that the site for the radar would be in Devanahalli, nothing ever materialised since.

It was stated in the report that to assess weather conditions in Bengaluru, Kolar, Ramanagara and Chikkaballapura, Karnataka uses Chennai's Doppler radar, for North Karnataka, the one in Goa is used, while for interior Karnataka and Malnad, Kerala's radar is used.

Incidentally, the report also quoted an IMD official, according to whom the process of procuring and housing two such radars - one in Bengaluru and another in Mangaluru - was on and that it could materialise by early 2024.