Ganderbal, June 13: The Automatic Weather Station (AWS) of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in Ganderbal and Baramulla districts is lying defunct since past six months.
The AWS was set up to supply hourly weather data pertaining to temperature, humidity, pressure, wind, rainfall and solar radiation with precision.
With the AWS of Ganderbal and Baramulla defunct, no temperature or rainfall reading is available in the two districts.
The AWS are designed to disseminate information about snowfall, inclement weather, avalanche threats, and heavy or scant rainfall.
Experts said that the information gathered by the weather stations at the district levels could facilitate the administration to effectively mitigate the impact of any disaster.
Few years back, the IMD set up AWS in Ganderbal district along with other districts.
However, the IMD has failed to upgrade and keep functional the weather station here in Ganderbal district which has been lying defunct since last six months.
Similarly, AWS in Baramulla district is also out of order for the past few months.
An official of IMD said that the AWS in Ganderbal was satellite based which had to be upgraded with GPRS system.
He said that they had to install some equipment and hopefully within a month it would start functioning again.
The official said that the AWS in Baramulla would also be made functional soon.