Monday, in some ways, was a good day for officials at the GHMC, who have been struggling over the past few days to accurately predict the areas where heavy rainfall was headed.
The Doppler radar at the Indian Meteorological Department’s station at Begumpet in the city was brought back online after repairs, providing up-to-date and immediate forecasts of the movement of rain-bearing clouds over the city and its expected intensity, providing huge relief to officials as they reaquired the ability to predictively move men and materials where they might be needed.
It may be recalled that the Doppler radar was on the blink for almost a week, since last Tuesday when the current spells of heavy rains began lashing much of Hyderabad and other areas under the GHMC limits. The radar, according to IMD officials, had to be taken offline due to voltage-related issues that were corrected on Monday.
The radar was back online a little after 1 pm on Monday and soon after, the Twitter account of the Director of Enforcement Vigilance & Disaster Management @Director_EVDM began posting the Doppler images of the presence of clouds and movement of rain over the city.
The Doppler images are of immense help, director, EV&DM, Viswajit Kampati said. “We get to see the entire state, then one that provides a view of a 150 km radius with the city at the centre and the third which zooms in on the GHMC area.”
He said, “the 150-km range image helps in understanding which way the rain clouds are moving and if they are heading towards the GHMC area so we can be better prepared for what might be coming a couple of hours later.”
