200252 Poor Weather Reports

Poor Weather Reports
Report No. 200252

I have been on the Indian West Coast trade for several years now. We utilise weather reports from the India Met. Dept. covering NAVAREA-VIII. These reports are prefixed SECURITÉ and are disseminated as EGC messages in the form of SHIPPING BULETINS. That is to say they are meant for use by the international lay public and not just by English speaking meteorological specialists and those well versed with Indian geographical areas. However, the language used in the reports is often incomprehensible. I quote from one received - which is a typical example followed by my interpretation evolved by guesswork:

SECURITÉ - SHIPPING BULLETIN FOR MET. AREA VIII NORTH OF EQUATOR

PART-1: NO STORM WARNING

PART-II:

THE LOPAR OVER NW BAY AND ADJ. AREAS OF COASTAL GWB ORISSA NOW LIES OVER ORISSA AND AREAS OF JHERKAND, EMP AND CHATISGARH(.) PASSOCIATED CYCIR EXTENDS UPTO MTLS TILTING SW-WARDS WITH HEIGHT(.) THE OFFSHORE TROUGH ON SLC FROM NORTH MAHARASHTRA COAST TO KARNATAKA COAST PERSISTS(.) WEATHER SEASONAL REST MET AREA VIII(N)

LOPAR = Low Pressure Area
ADJ = adjacent
GWB = Gangetic West Bengal (now wasn't that simple?)
JHERKAND = how should a non-Indian know where Jherkand is ? (It is actually in the Eastern part of India - well into the interior away from the East coast),
EMP = Eastern Madhya Pradesh- again central parts of India well away from the coast)
CHATISGARH = ditto as "EMP"
Let's assume the lay,international user knows where MAHARASHTRA and KARNATAKA are. They wouldn't know? Ok, they form the central and southern parts of the west coast of India.
PASSOCIATED = pressure associated ?
CYCIR = cyclonic circulation
MTLS = what is MTLS ?
SLC = what is SLC ?

PART-III: FORECAST

Plain words are again not used in the text with following typical examples:

BEC = becoming; FWDS = fresh winds
SCT/ RA/TS = scattered rain/thunderstorms
RGH = rough

We also receive reports from centres based in Mauritius covering areas south of Navarea-VIII. These contain plain English, no abbreviations of words and refer to regions in terms of distances/directions from Internationally known areas/ports or else in lat/long terms. Their contents are well understood and hence EFFECTIVELY useable. Also, the whole effort of the team that wrote the bulletin and sent it out has been productive. In contrast, India Met Dept. reports, I suspect, are thrown into the waste basket by most as being incomprehensible. Of more concern is that their contents could be misunderstood by the end user with safety being compromised instead of enhanced. Sadly, what they really convey by the manner in which they are written is laziness, by not typing out the full form of words and losing sight of the ultimate purpose of sending the bulletin in the first place - which is to warn the LAY INTERNATIONAL public which sails on the high seas.

I have tired of explaining to deck officers joining my ship the gobbledegook in these bulletins. Instead I've had to put up a handy "glossary" as a sticker on the chart table. What about those who pass through the area only once in a while and those who have only a working knowledge of English? I remember reading reports in MARS about the Indian Ocean being an area where it is next to impossible to get timely and good weather information. The India Met. Dept. is not helping things the way their reports are written.