Discuss the meaning of colour-coded weather warning for cyclone prone areas given by Indian Metrological Department.

The Indian Meteorological Department plays the most important role in predicting and issuing colourcoded weather warnings in the cyclone prone area. The IMD has four colour-coded warnings as per the intensity of any weather system — green, yellow, orange and the last one being red.

Colour Code    |||| Stage of Warning

Green (No Alert) |||| No advisors issued

Yellow (Be Updated) |||| Several bad weather across several days

Orange (Be Prepared) |||| Sign for evacuation and keeping the basic necessities ready

Red (Take Action)  ||||  Prepared for extraordinary measures and follow given by authorities.

These alerts are universal in nature and are also issued during floods, depending on the amount of water rising above land/in a river as a result of torrential rainfall. For instance, when the water in a river is ‘above normal’ level, or between the ‘warning’ and ‘danger’ levels, a yellow alert is issued.

Hence, The Indian Metrological Department (IMD) issued a fresh yellow weather warning for heavy rain and snowfall accompanied by thunderstorm and lightning in Himachal Pradesh.