Weather portal to help moon sighting

New Delhi, Apr 19 (UNI) Id-ul-Fitr and 'Karva Chauth' are now only a click of the mouse away.

The exact timing of the sighting of the moon for the festivals is a highlight of the new weather website launched today by the Science and Technology Ministry.

The site (www.indiaweatherwatch.org), contains astronomy information like sunrise and sunset and moonrise and moonset that determines the beginning of many festivals like Id-ul-Fitr and 'Karva Chauth'.

''Our women need no longer worry about the time when the moon is going to appear on 'Karva Chauth' day,'' said Union Science and Technology and Ocean Development Minister Kapil Sibal, who launched the website.

The website, the first such portal with public-private partnership (S and T Ministry and business chamber FICCI), contains weather forecast for the next 5 days for 20 major cities and 200 other locations across the country as well as agro-advisories for farmers.

There is also zonewise forecast for the northwest, east, northeast, central, south and west zones of the country. Thirty stations across the country will get farm advisories on the site, administered by FICCI. The data will be given by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, Noida.

The portal gives temperature, humidity, rainfall details as well as weather news. Weather alerts will appear beforehand if there is a storm or cyclone.

The site could come handy for people heading to hill stations this summer with the facility to get customised information like that of the weather in Shimla or Mussourie in a particular week.

Weather jargons are broken down into simple words for the layman in a 1000-word glossary on the website, which is a prelude to the IMD's 24-hour 'Mausam' weather YV channel, said Mr Sibal.

Its launch may be good news, but the forecast for this week on the portal sounds bad. After a week of pleasant weather, the blazing summer will be back before the week ends.

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