Navi Mumbai: 12 people died due to sunstroke after attending award function has no IMD observatory

Navi Mumbai, the city where 12 people died due to sunstroke after attending an award function, has no observatory of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on the basis of which local weather alerts can be issued. 

According to a report of PTI, On the Maharashtra government's request, the IMD had forecast that the temperature in Kharghar area of Navi Mumbai, where the function was held on Sunday, could reach 34-35 degrees Celsius, based on the data from its Santacruz observatory in neighbouring Mumbai, located 35 km away, MeT officials said.

However, on ground the temperature rose to 38 degrees Celsius. Temperature was recorded by the nearest observatory in Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) in Rabale area of Navi Mumbai. The observatory is operated by the Thane-Belapur Industrial Association.

IMD scientist Sushma Nair said that the observatory was revived in 2017 due to which enough observations are not there to calculate normals. If we do not have any observatory near a venue where an event is to take place, our protocol is we issue forecast on the basis of the nearest observatory. In this case, it was the Santacruz observatory, Nair said. In Mumbai, the civic body has its own mechanism, apart from the IMD, to get weather data.
 
 Maharashtra government's culture department had sought weather-related information from the IMD, ahead of the function in Kharghar to confer the Maharashtra Bhushan award on social reformer Appasaheb Dharmadhikari, which was provided to it on April 12.