KOCHI: District’s first digital Automatic Rain Gauge (ARG) station was installed at Civil Station in Kakkanad. It was inducted as a part of the modernising programme of India Meteorological Department (IMD). Though ARGs were also commissioned at Keerampara, Neeleswaram, Muvattupuzha and Neryamangalam, the ARG at Kakkanad will be the only instrument in the district which will record both minimum and maximum temperatures every day.P S Biju, scientist at IMD, said that such instruments would be of immense help for recording temperature measures in the times of natural calamities. “Since it measures weather, rainfall, temperature and the like, we will have a concrete data in the wake of natural calamities,” he said. The temperatures and the weather forecast will be updated every hour, which will be then sent to INSAT-3 and then to the IMD’s lab at Pune. These data will then be uploaded in the IMD’s websites - www.imdaws.com, www.imdarg.com.The new ARGs are being inducted as a part of the second-phase of IMD’s modernising drive. According to it, IMD’s target is to set up a network of 2250 ARGs across the country and the thirty new ARGs in the state will be a part of this drive.With the installation of 30 more ARGs, Biju said that the 45 ARGs across the state will give more localised and real time information. “By this monsoon, real information on rainfall can be accessed by people through our website,” he said. The officials with the disaster management cell, Kakkanad, said that besides giving information it has also eased the task of collecting information. “Earlier, it was done manually. However, with this new venture, the data is available worldwide,” he said.Every district in the state will get ARGs except Kottayam. ARGs are to be installed at Manjeswaram (Kasargod), Panniyoor, Mattanur and Cherutazham (Kannur), Mananthavady, Pookot and Meenangadi (Wayanad), Peruvannamuzhi and Thamarasseri (Kozhikode), Aanakkayam (Malappuram) , Kanjirapuzha, Meenkara and Eramayoor (Palakkad), Vilangankunnu, Enamakkal, Vyanthala and Chemoni (Thrissur), Kakkanad, Keerampara, Neeleswaram, Neryamangalam and Moovattupuzha (Ernakulam), Thodupuzha (Idukki), Kurudamannil and Konni (Pathanamthitta), Anchal and Thenmala (Kollam) and Peringamala and Perukavila (T’Puram) and Alappuzha. Of the 30 new ARG stations, 11 will record temperature and relative humidity too.
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