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Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Always check the weather before travelling

Better be on the safer side and make a check of weather forecasts and alerts

It is always better to keep an eye on the weather, especially if you are going on a tour or travelling someplace. Below are some websites and services where you can keep a track on weather and forecasts.

Satellite image of cyclone Phailin by NASA, MODIS/ LANCE
Satellite image of cyclone Phailin by NASA, MODIS/ LANCE [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons

Cyclones and heavy rains are two extreme weather conditions that can bring serious devastation. Some other extreme weather conditions that may affect you seriously during travel are heat waves, cold waves, and depending on specific weather condition of certain locations, sand storms or snow storms.

So, it's always better be on the safer side and make a check of weather forecasts and alerts for the place you are planning to travel.

Unlike a couple of decades ago, these days there are many ways for checking weather forecasts and keeping an eye on the weather. While searching for weather on Google or any other search engine is a good way, you can also use other sources for detailed information on weather conditions, forecasts, extreme weather alerts or warnings. I have listed some websites and services below which provide some details or bulletins.

Weather forecasts may not be 100 per cent accurate, but they do help to get some information on the possible weather conditions for the place you have planned to go to. These days, apart from online portals, there are many apps for the ones with smartphones. However, you may not need them as you can always just look up a weather portal in your phone's web browser.

For India, a warning will be issued by the Met department (IMD) if cyclones or heavy rainfall etc. have been predicted. Severe weather alerts will usually be telecasted in the news media, either TV, news websites, or the newspapers. However, if you aren't in a habit of regularly watching or reading the news, you may miss it.

Hence it is always advisable to check the weather before embarking on a tour or journey, during any season, as bad weather can play spoil sport in your fun trip or excursion. Things can turn ugly if the bad weather worsens.

Some weather portals to check weather alerts and forecasts

Some Helpful External Links: Here are some handy portals online where you can get forecasts and weather warnings, especially in India :

[1] India Meteorological Department (IMD) Weather forecasts and warnings.
(Also referred to as the Met Department, IMD is an agency of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India.) You can find can find severe weather warnings, weather bulletins and forecasts, and also recent satellite images for all of India in their website.

[2] yr.no by Norwegian Meteorological Institute and Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

Also, there are other commercial or non commercial weather services where you can get the weather for almost any desired location, such as:

[3] The Weather Channel
[4] Skymet Weather - Weather forecast for India
[5] Weather Underground
[6] AccuWeather


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