The India Meteorological Department (IMD) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences failed to install an X-Band Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) in Lahaul and Spiti Valley due to severe beam blockage issues that would have significantly hampered effective weather surveillance. Following the expiry of the project timeline, the proposed DWR was not established at that location and was subsequently deployed at another suitable site in the country. Currently, Himachal Pradesh has three operational X-Band Doppler Weather Radars located at Kufri, Jot, and Murari Devi.
IMD has established an extensive weather monitoring network in Himachal Pradesh comprising 24 Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs), 4 Agro-Automatic Weather Stations (Agro-AWSs), and 66 Automatic Rain Gauge Stations (ARGs). Additionally, the state is covered by 135 rain gauges under district-wise and block-wise rainfall monitoring schemes. Specifically in the districts of Lahaul & Spiti and Kinnaur, there are 10 operational AWS and ARG stations: Reckon (AWS, Kinnaur, 2304m elevation), Keylong (AWS, Lahaul & Spiti, 3119m), Kukumsher (AWS, Lahaul & Spiti, 2627m), Tabo (AWS, Lahaul & Spiti, 3262m), Kalpa (ARG, Kinnaur, 2885m), Leo (ARG, Kinnaur, 4988m), Moorang (ARG, Kinnaur, 2291m), Pooh (ARG, Kinnaur, 2745m), Sangla (ARG, Kinnaur, 2563m), and Sumdho (ARG, Lahaul & Spiti, 1096m).
The government has undertaken several measures to strengthen weather monitoring networks and forecasting systems in response to increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events across the country, including remote and hilly regions. These measures are implemented based on operational requirements, technical feasibility, and resource availability. The Ministry of Earth Sciences has adopted advanced techniques including high-performance computing facilities to support high-resolution numerical weather prediction models, observational systems, and artificial intelligence-enabled forecasting tools to improve weather monitoring and forecasting accuracy, particularly in vulnerable and remote areas.