Hyderabad: In a rather strange development, it has been revealed that since the India Meteorological Department Hyderabad’s observation station is located at Begumpet, it only records rainfall officially if Begumpet receives rainfall.
For instance if Nampally or Tolichowki receives heavy downpours, the IMD station counts that as just trace rainfall without giving the exact measure.
On Monday evening, Secunderabad received rain but the Begumpet observatory reported trace rainfall as it didn’t receive any.
Details of rainfall are recorded both by the IMD and the state Planning department that has many automatic observatories in the city. However, the two departments hardly coordinate to give the exact figures.
A source from IMD-Hyderabad said, “The department has one manual observatory at Begumpet, two automatic weather stations at Begumpet and at Rajendra Nagar besides seven rain gauges in the city.However not all seven are in working order — and that seriously affects readings. The measurements taken at Begumpet and Rajendra Nagar are accurate. The IMD Hyderabad does not take rainfall data from the state Planning department because IMD is not satisfied with their measurements as it does not follow the standard specifications. As per the system, the observatories have to follow proper exposure conditions, they should not be set up next to buildings or trees, which can hamper the measurements.”
The IMD’s rain gauges are located at Golconda, JNTU, Serilingampally, Ram Chandra Puram, Hayath Nagar, Uppal, Medchal and Shamshabad. The state Planning department meanwhile has 32 rain gauges in the city.
The source said that most of the time the IMD gauges are not operational.
