50 automated weather stations being installed in Gilgit-Baltistan

Islamabad : As many as fifty automated weather stations are being installed at different locations to expanding weather information surveillance in the Gilgit-Baltistan region.

According to the details, the installation of these weather stations is part of the project involving 37 million dollar to identify and manage risks associated with Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs).

The automated weather stations possess accurate forecasting options while able to provide real-time data. Having low power requirements that can be met with a single solar panel, they can operate practically anywhere, thus making them ideal to be installed at locations vulnerable to GLOFs.

They will measure all the important surface weather conditions that will be used by Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) to conduct hydrological modelling to generate flood scenarios and calculate GLOF lead time.

The official data showed that Pakistan hosts over 7,200 glaciers in its North, spreading over 17,000 square kilometres, which is home to the mighty Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya (HKH) mountain ranges.

These glaciers have more ice than anywhere on earth outside the polar regions–hence referred to as the third pole. These glaciers feed the rivers that account for around 75 percent of the stored water supply in Pakistan inhabited by 220 million people.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam has said that the automated weather stations would build PMD’s capacity for better monitoring, planning, and coordination of any climate change-induced disasters particularly GLOFs.