Himachal’s hills are beautiful and unpredictable. Sudden heavy rain, cloudbursts and landslides can appear with little notice. That’s where Doppler weather radar nowcasting helps. It watches storms minute by minute and gives short, practical warnings people can act on.
What is nowcasting, simply?
Nowcasting means short-term weather forecasts for the next 30 to 120 minutes. Doppler radar tracks rain clouds as they move and grow. This gives accurate, local warnings not broad regional guesses. Think of it as a traffic app for storms: it shows where the storm is heading and how strong it will be soon.
Why this matters for Himachal
Himalayan valleys change weather fast. Wind hits a slope and rain can explode within minutes. Small towns, farms, roads and hydropower sites sit below these slopes. A 30–90 minute warning can let people close a road, move livestock, stop workers, or shut down a risky hydropower intake. That saves lives, crops and property.
How Sytem can work
Set up Doppler radars at key valleys. Feed radar data into an open nowcasting tool like PySTEPS. Use a mix of methods: simple extrapolation for fast alerts, and smarter algorithms (ANVIL, SPROG) for growth and decay of storms. Build a short alert chain: radar → nowcast → district control room → quick SMS/WhatsApp alerts to local teams and village councils.
Long-term payoff
Better early warnings mean fewer injuries, less crop loss, safer roads, and smarter water and power decisions. Over time, the system can cover more valleys and tie into national weather services. That’s resilience built one radar and one community at a time.
