Weather Stations and Forecasts

Class 7 Social Science · Chapter 2: Understanding the Weather · NCERT Exploring Society: India and Beyond section 2.4

Learn

A weather station brings all the instruments together and takes readings at regular intervals. An Automated Weather Station (AWS) uses sensors to record temperature, humidity, wind, rain and pressure with no one present; one now stands at a glacial lake in Sikkim, over 4800 m up, to give early warning of dangerous weather.

Meteorologists study long records of data to predict the weather hours, days or weeks ahead. With climate change bringing more floods, droughts, heat waves and cyclones, forecasts save lives: fishermen are told not to sail, and whole coasts can be evacuated before a cyclone. The IMD issues colour-coded maps: yellow = watch (be updated), orange = alert (be prepared), red = warning (take action).

Different elements dominate at different times: rainfall in July, temperature in May and December, pressure when a cyclone approaches, and wind when the hot, dusty loo blows across north India. Weather is closely linked to climate, the long-term pattern, which we study next.

Explore: what should people do?

1. Sort each forecast.

Remember

• Weather stations, including automated ones, record all elements regularly.
• Forecasts and colour-coded warnings help people prepare for storms, heat waves and floods.

Quick check

An IMD map shows your district in red. This means …

1. warning: take action
2. no warning
3. be updated
4. be prepared

Think about it

Which people in your town most depend on weather forecasts, and why?

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.