Context

• Recently Indian Meteorological Department issued a yellow weather warning for rain in Himachal Pradesh.
• The weather department forecast thunderstorm with hail in isolated places of mid hills, including Shimla, Mandi, Kullu, Chamba, Solan and Sirmaur.

About

Colour coded weather warning:

1. It is issued by the country’s apex weather agency Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) from Ministry of Earth Sciences.
2. Its objective is to alert people ahead of severe or hazardous weather which has the potential to cause damage, widespread disruption or danger to life.
3. As per the regular practice, warnings are uploaded in the website every day. District wise rainfall forecast along with warnings with colour coded alerts are also uploaded and updated thrice daily in the website.

Four colour codes:

The Four colour codes are issued to indicate various categories of warnings. The meaning of these codes are:

Red:

• Take action.
• Extremely bad weather is expected.
• People need to take action to keep themselves and others safe.
• Widespread damage, travel and power disruption and risk to life are likely. People must avoid dangerous areas and follow the advice of the emergency services and local authorities.

Amber:

• Be prepared.
• There is an increased likelihood of extremely bad weather, which could potentially cause travel delays, road and rail closures, and interruption of power supply.
• Amber means people need to be prepared to change plans and protect themselves, their family and community from the impacts of the severe weather based on the forecast from the Met Office.
• There could be risk to life and property.

Yellow:

• Be updated.
• Severely bad weather is possible over the next few days, plan ahead thinking about possible travel delays and disruption of day-to-day activities possible.
• It indicates the weather may change or worsen in the next few days.

Green:

• No action required.
• No severe weather concerns.
• No advisory is issued.