New Weather Surveillance Radar Tower in
will be operational next month and here is what it means.
The 73m high tower has a range of 400 kms around Islamabad providing better look at weather
The new Weather Surveillance Radar Tower adjacent to the headquarters of
Meteorological Department has finally been completed and is expected to be operational by June 2018.
The new tower near Zero Point has been provided by
International Cooperation Agency (
) and will replace the old tower that was also provided by the same company in 1991.
The new tower has a range of 400 kilometers around Islamabad which will effectively provide data about clouds heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, lightning, hailstorm, and windstorm.
The tower will be covering areas like Mianwali, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Hazara, Malakand, Peshawar, Bannu, Kohat, and DI Khan.
According to Director General of PMD, Dr. Ghulam Rasul, the tower is unable to reach Gilgit, Swat, and Jalalabad areas because of mountainous regions which block its reach.
He has assured that the PMD has extensive plans to expand and install additional such radars in Lahore, Chitral, DI Khan, Quetta, Cherat, Gilgit, Dalbandin, and Gwadar.
These new towers will have ranges from 150 to 400 km and will allow the PMD to finally replace outdated equipment for better weather surveillance.
Apart from receiving accurate weather surveillance, the towers will also play a vital role in improving the country’s early weather warning system which will help in combating weather-based disasters.