Automated Weather Stations - Kerala State Disaster Management Authority

India Meteorological Department had only 68 functional manual rain gauges in Kerala in 2018. As per the BIS standards, Kerala requires 256 weather stations. In addition to this, real time monitoring of rainfall is also particularly important in disaster management.

The 2018 flood in Kerala pointed out the deficiency of density of the weather observation network in the state. State government requested Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India to enhance the number of observatories in Kerala through a Letter No. DMA1/447/2018/DMD dated 06.10.2018. State requested 256 Automated Stations to be installed in Kerala. IMD had only 15 Automated weather stations as on 2018 and in which only 6 were functional. In addition to this IMD had 30 ARG’s installed across the state, in which 6 were working continuously and 10 intermittently.

With reference to the Government letter IMD decided to install 100 Automated Weather Stations for Kerala state. Kerala State Disaster Management Authority conducted a detailed field survey and prepared a list of 139 10m*10m land parcels across the state and provided to IMD. Selection procedure was based on the hazard profile of the state and suggestions of Dam managers and other concerned departments.

The reports were approved by IMD Met Centre Kerala and accordingly, Government of Kerala issued Government Order No. 725/2019/DMD dated 18/10/2019 allocating 73 land parcels identified by KSDMA and approved by IMD for establishing the AWSs. A second list of 65 sites (27 preferred and 38 second preference sites) was communicated to IMD vide orders of KSDMA dated 21/05/2020 for the remaining 27 AWSs.