The?India Meteorological Department is all set to launch highly localised weather information services in 50 cities across the country on the lines of a similar initiative being implemented in the national capital region.

The weather office had launched the Urban Meteorological Services for Delhi-NCR in June last year from 13 weather stations to provide current observations as well as early warnings through Nowcast.

"We launched the Urban Meteorological Services for Delhi last year that gives localised weather readings. We plan to start similar service for 50 more sites in one year," Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General, India Meteorological Department (IMD) told reporters here.?Metro cities such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru are expected to see the launch of Urban Meteorological Services in the first phase which will be later expanded to more cities.

Under the UMS, the IMD provides current weather observations, air quality observations, weather forecast, air quality forecast, district-wise weather warnings and a Nowcast.?It also provides district-wise warnings for severe weather events such as thunderstorm, heavy rainfall in colour-coded form which could be understood easily by the general public.

-With PTI Input