Each decade, cold waves increasing in number and intensity in J&K: Earth Sciences ministry

Responding in affirmative to a question by member Lok Sahba Mohammed Basheer whether the Government was aware that the extreme climatic events have increased “significantly” across India in the 21st century, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences informed parliament that the increase in various extreme weather and climate events such as heavy rainfall, floods, droughts, cyclones, heat waves and cold waves have been observed in the country in line with the increase in the extreme events observed over various parts of the globe.

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To minimize the adverse effect of the hazardous extreme weather events, he said, India Meteorological Department (IMD) is effectively functioning in the country maintaining accurate weather forecasting along with early detection of natural disasters.

“IMD is dedicated for monitoring, detection and forecasting of weather and climate including early warning for severe weather events such as, heavy rainfall, extreme temperature, thunderstorms, cyclones etc. The weather forecasting and early warning systems in the country are comparable to most of the developed countries in the world,” he said, adding, “Efforts are continuously made to enhance the level of efficiency of the forecasting systems and to improve the skill of weather forecast.”

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“With the upgradation of observations and prediction systems, noticeable improvements have been made in the recent past in the skill of prediction, especially with respect to heavy-rainfall, heat-wave, thunderstorm and cyclones,” the minister said.