Own index to quantify heat impact next year: IMD

New Delhi: India will launch its own composite index next year to quantify the impact of heat on its population and generate impact-based heat wave alerts for specific locations, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said. The IMD began issuing an experimental heat index for different parts of the country last week, taking into account air temperature and relative humidity to determine how hot it really feels. "The heat index is an experimental product. It is not validated and we have mentioned that (on the IMD's website) too.

We are coming up with our own system now, a multi-parameter product called 'heat hazard score'. We hope that it will be better than the others," Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology, IMD, told PTI. Along with temperature and humidity, it will integrate other parameters such as wind and duration of exposure. It will be an effective indicator of heat stress for people, he said. The IMD chief said the hazard score will be ready in around two months and "it will be operational in the next summer season".

Asked if the IMD has incorporated health data into the product, he said the weather bureau will gradually do it. "We have been working on it but health data is not readily available in some places." Mohapatra and his team conducted a heat wave hazard analysis for the entire country last year, taking into account maximum temperature, minimum temperature, humidity, wind and the duration of heat waves.