Met dept to launch phone app for weather updates

LAHORE

Following the increased use of mobile phone applications by citizens, Pakistan Meteorological Department has decided to launch a mobile app named Pak Weather through which citizens can get weather predictions and other information directly on their cell phones.

Officials in Met office, Islamabad said the dissemination of weather forecast to the end users is very vital and the development of ‘Mobile Phone Apps’ has made it faster and easier to access the information which is becoming popular day by day across the world.

In Pakistan, demand for such “Cellular Mobile Phone Apps” is increasing day by day, they said, adding the objective of the project is to increase weather information awareness to mobile users across the country and to stay connected on all Android/IOS handheld devices for any alerts like weather, earthquake, rain, storm, cyclone, disaster etc information for mobile users.

Officials revealed that the proposed cellular mobile phone App would include the default weather info of major cities of Pakistan on homepage besides the other basic information regarding weather, earthquake, rain, storm, cyclone, disaster etc. The App will also include a drop down menu for city wise selection for weather information.

Met officials said the App would have interactive graphics and would contain weather symbols and icons besides providing one touch calling from App to all necessary telephone numbers of PMD officials as well as offices. With this feature, the users will contact PMD forecasting centres also. Besides, SMS and email features, the App will also contain image gallery of latest events related to weather and climate while users can also get themselves registered and this database will be maintained. The App would have universal functionality in providing meteorological service to wide variety of interest and for numerous public activities and projects, which require weather and climatic information.

Users can also subscribe alerts/push notifications to get updated information about fog/flood/cyclone/Tsunami etc while the App will also provide weather advisories for farmers/aviators/mountaineers/motorists.

Meanwhile, continental air is prevailing over most parts of the country while a shallow westerly wave is still affecting Kashmir and its adjoining areas. Met office predicted a mainly dry weather in most parts of the country. However, more light rain (with light snow over the hills) is expected at isolated places in Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and its adjoining hilly areas.

Rainfall was recorded at several cities, including Garhi Dupatta (07mm), Kotli and Rawalakot (02mm), Mandi Bahauddin and Sialkot (03mm), Mangla (01mm) and Hunza (01mm). No snowfall was reported on Tuesday.

Lowest minimum temperature was recorded at Kalam where mercury dropped down to -08°C while in Lahore, it was 12°C while maximum highest reached 25°C whereas humidity came down to 20 percent.