IITians are working hard with US Scientists to improve cyclonic predictions in India so you can be warned well before time

IIT-Bhubaneswar researchers have been working with a group of US-based scientists to develop a system that can help in improving prediction of extreme untoward weather events.

For this purpose, researchers in climate science at the institute are studying coastal inundation.

They want to develop Land-Ocean-Atmospheric Modelling System to improve storm predictions so that people residing in the vulnerable coastal states can be saved from huge damages caused by natural calamities.

This is being seen as a necessary step in view of the erratic and extreme weather events due to climate change and global warming. According to US-based scientists, climate change has altered the rainfall pattern in the subcontinent.

"We now receive a huge amount of rainfall within a short window of time followed by long dry spells. Besides, the rainfall and storm surge during tropical cyclones seriously affects large shoreline populations causing destruction," says IIT-B Professor UC Mohanty.

He adds - "Storm surge on the southern coastline of the state from Ganjam district up to Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh could be of 2-3 meters while a cyclone of the same intensity could whip up waves of 10-12 meters in the Balasore coast in the north.It is because, the sea is very shallow off the Balasore coast while it is deep along the southern coastline."

Since coastal states are the most prone to tsunamis and storms, they are likely to be the worst affected at a time when the number of tropical cyclones in a season could still remain the same, but their category or intensity may be higher.