India Meteorological Department (IMD) : Daily Current Affairs

India Meteorological Department (IMD)

According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrutunjay Mohapatra winter could be colder this season due to the prevailing La Nina conditions, while addressing a webinar on ‘Cold Wave Risk Reduction’ organised by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

As weak La Nina condition is prevailing, more cold can be expected this year.
The El Nino and La Nina conditions play a dominant role considering the large scale factor for the occurrence of cold wave conditions.
La Nina conditions are favourable for cold wave conditions, while El Nino conditions are unfavourable for it.
There should not be an impression that climate change leads to rise in the temperature, but on the contrary, it leads to erratic weather

Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are among the states that mostly see deaths due to cold waves.

Formed in 1875, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is the national meteorological service of the country and it is the chief government agency dealing in everything related to meteorology, seismology, and associated subjects.
The administrative responsibilities of the Department are under the supervision of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Indian Government.
The IMD is headquartered in New Delhi.
The IMD also releases a winter forecast every year in November which gives predictions on the severity of the winter season starting December to February.

El Nino and La Nina are opposite phases of what is known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle.
The ENSO cycle is a scientific term that describes the fluctuations in temperature between the ocean and atmosphere in the east-central Equatorial Pacific.
Phenomenon of warming of the ocean surface, or above-average sea surface temperatures (SST), in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean is known as El Nino. The low-level surface winds, which normally blow from east to west along the equator (“easterly winds”), instead weaken or, in some cases, start blowing the other direction (from west to east or “westerly winds”). This reversal of winds creates unusual warming and low pressure near the Peruvian Coast, and causes heavy rainfall.
La Nina is sometimes referred to as the cold phase of ENSO and El Nino as the warm phase of ENSO. These deviations from normal surface temperatures can have large- scale impacts not only on ocean processes, but also on global weather and climate, including India. This situation causes heavy rainfall (monsoon) on western Pacific areas.

For India, El Nino during winter results in development of warm conditions.
During summer, it leads to dry conditions and deficient monsoon, leading to droughts and water scarcity.
Whereas La-Nina brings rains and stronger monsoon in India, it may cause flood like situation in coastal areas.
El-Nino and La-Nina are complex unpredictable phenomenon and Agriculture being the important occupation, climatic changes due to these are grave for India