Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh on Thursday inaugurated the new Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Jammu and announced that a similar centre would soon be established in Lucknow, further expanding India’s regional weather forecasting network.
The Jammu facility becomes the country’s seventh Regional Meteorological Centre and will serve Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, and Himachal Pradesh by providing specialised weather services, disaster warnings, and climate support tailored to the Himalayan region.
The Minister said the new centre would strengthen weather monitoring, forecasting, and early warning systems in a region characterised by diverse terrain ranging from plains to high-altitude mountains. It will provide district-level forecasts, mountain weather forecasts, tourist advisories, city-specific weather services, and warnings for flash floods, cloudbursts, avalanches, heavy snowfall, thunderstorms, and landslides.
These services are expected to benefit pilgrims undertaking the Amarnath and Vaishno Devi yatras, as well as farmers, transport operators, hydropower projects, disaster management agencies, and security forces operating in challenging terrain.
Highlighting the expansion of meteorological infrastructure in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh over the past decade, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that there was no Doppler Weather Radar in the region in 2014, whereas four are now operational at Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, and Banihal Top. Under Mission Mausam, five additional Doppler Weather Radars have been proposed for Anantnag, Rajouri, Baramulla, Kishtwar, and Doda.
The observational network has also expanded substantially. The region currently has 56 observatories, including 15 manual observatories, 25 Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs), and 16 Automatic Rain Gauges (ARGs), compared to 13 AWSs and 14 ARGs in 2014.
Recently, AWSs have been installed at Kargil, Ukhral in Ramban district, and Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan. During the current financial year, nearly eight more AWSs and five ARGs are expected to be installed.
The number of stations under the Daily Rainfall Monitoring Scheme has increased from 30 in 2014 to 85 at present, significantly improving rainfall monitoring and forecasting capabilities.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the establishment of RMC Jammu marks an important restructuring of the India Meteorological Department’s regional operations. Until now, the Regional Meteorological Centre in Delhi coordinated weather and climate services for Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
With the creation of the Jammu centre, weather services for Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, and Himachal Pradesh will now be managed from Jammu, while the proposed Lucknow centre will cater to Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.