KATHMANDU, August 8

The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology is making necessary preparations to start 72-hour weather forecast and to provide prior information to farmers on ways to mitigate the risks of climate change on agriculture.

According to DHM officials, they are set to make timely improvements in the weather forecasting system and post a three-day weather forecast on the official website of the Meteorological Forecasting Division. The MFD is currently providing 24-hour weather forecast which includes minimum and maximum temperature, rainfall and humidity.

The DHM is all set to implement a Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPRC) Component II: Building Resilience to Climate Related Hazards (BRCH) project.

The main objective of the project is to increase government capacity to mitigate climate related hazards by improving the accuracy and timeliness of weather and flood forecasts and warnings for climate-vulnerable communities as well as developing agricultural management information system service to help farmers mitigate climate-related production risks.

The project focuses on ways to make the weather forecast more dependable and reliable and supports capacity building of DHM employees, thereby enabling them to extend the weather forecast from 24 hours to 72 hours. It is in the experimental phase and will be launched soon.

Meanwhile, the DHM is also doing groundwork to switch from general to specific when it comes to disseminating weather records.

Currently, it provides weather records of only 17 stations located in Dadeldhura, Dipayal, Dhangadi, Birendranagar, Nepalgunj, Jumla, Dang, Pokhara, Bhairahawa, Simara, Kathmandu, Okhaldhunga, Taplejung, Dhankuta, Biratnagar, Lumle and Jiri and does not disseminate weather phenomenon of particular districts and localities.

The project has envisaged setting up 100 automatic weather stations across the country,” he said without giving a timeline.