> Automatically verified official update: This page reproduces an official government communication from Ministry of Earth Sciences without adding legal conclusions. Always follow the linked primary source where exact wording matters.
Despite sustained efforts by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), in coordination with the State Government and other Central Government agencies, no suitable site has been identified in the Lahaul and Spiti Valley for the installation of an X-Band DWR due to severe beam blockage, which would significantly hamper effective weather surveillance. Following the expiry of the project timeline, the proposed DWR for the site was not established at that location, and the same DWR was subsequently deployed at another suitable site in the country. Currently, the State has three operational X-Band Doppler Weather Radars located at Kufri, Jot, and Murari Devi.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has established a network comprising 24 Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs), 4 Agro-Automatic Weather Stations (Agro-AWSs), and 66 Automatic Rain Gauge Stations (ARGs) in Himachal Pradesh to support weather monitoring and observational activities. In addition, the State is covered by 135 rain gauges under the district-wise and block-wise rainfall monitoring schemes to support rainfall monitoring. At present, 10 AWSs and ARGs are operational in the districts of Lahaul & Spiti and Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh. The details of AWSs & ARGs installed in the districts of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur are given in the table below:
S. No.
Station Name
District
Latitude (ºN)
Longitude (ºE)
Elevation (m)
Type of Station
1
Reckon
Kinnaur
31.5386
78.2767
2304
AWS
2
Keylong
Lahaul & Spiti
32.5719
77.0353
3119
AWS
3
Kukumsher
Lahaul & Spiti
32.7003
76.6885
2627
AWS
4
Tabo
Lahaul & Spiti
32.0915
78.3851
3262
AWS
5
Kalpa
Kinnaur
31.54
78.25
2885
ARG
6
Leo
Kinnaur
31.88
78.13
4988
ARG
7
Moorang
Kinnaur
31.6
78.4412
2291
ARG
8
Pooh
Kinnaur
31.7608
78.5829
2745
ARG
9
Sangla
Kinnaur
31.43
78.25
2563
ARG
10
Sumdho
Lahaul & Spiti
32.0695
76.5988
1096
ARG
The Government, through the India Meteorological Department (IMD), under the Ministry, has undertaken several measures to strengthen the weather monitoring network and forecasting systems in response to the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events across the country, including remote and hilly regions, based on operational requirements, technical feasibility, and resource availability. Further, the Government has adopted advanced, state-of-the-art techniques, including high-performance computing (HPC) facilities, to support high-resolution numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, observational systems, and artificial intelligence-enabled forecasting tools, thereby improving the accuracy of weather monitoring and forecasting and associated extreme weather events. Currently, the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has a weather observation network comprising manual observatories, AWSs, ARGs, Agro-AWSs, DWRs, upper-air observatories, and satellites to monitor weather and support NWP models for weather forecasting and extreme weather events across the country, particularly in vulnerable and remote areas.
This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Earth Sciences Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
*
NKR/JKP
Official source
[Read the original PIB release](https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2291636)
Source attribution: Press Information Bureau, Government of India.