India's highest meteorological center started at Leh

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India's highest meteorological center started in Leh at 3500 m above sea level.It was inaugurated by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Hon’ble Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare,Science & Technology, Earth sciences on 29th December 2020.

Leh is the capital city of Union Territory of Ladakh. Located in the northernmost part of India, Ladakh lies on the strategically important Western Himalayan Region.

It is bordering with China, Pakistan, Tibet and Afghanistan. Ladakh has got two districts Leh & Kargil.

Ladakh has a complex mountain terrain with little annual precipitation of only 10 cm/year, thus it is a cold desert.

However, it being a mountainous region, the place has got very harsh and extreme climate and experiences various kinds of disastrous weather events like Cloud Bursts, Flash Floods, Glacial Lake Outbursts (GLOFs), avalanche,drought etc. leading to loss of life and property. Recent examples being the severe Cloud Burst in August 2010, 2015, Avalanche at Khardong La (Pass) in Jan 2019.

Frequent Blockage of Leh-Manali and Leh-Srinagar Highways due to heavy snowfall on passes is common.

To avert losses due to such weather events in future, the Government of India (GOI) felt the need to establish a Meteorological (Met) Center at Leh in 2020 to strengthen weather related Early Warning

System in Ladakh.

To begin with, India Meteorological Department (IMD) established a surface observatory at Leh for

reporting daily meteorological parameters like pressure, humidity, temperature, snowfall, etc.

At present Ladakh has got 4 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), two each in both districts of which one is at Drass,the coldest place in India.

Realtime weather data is available online on IMD AWS site. To improve the network of observations, IMD proposes to install more AWSs next year at the remotest of places like Nubra, Zanskar, Changthang, Parkachik, etc. thus covering the whole of Ladakh.

IMD will install instruments for monitoring of Radiation, Air Pollution, opening of Agro-meteorological Unit, Hydro-meteorological unit, Upper Air Instruments, Doppler Weather Radar etc. IMD will make every effort to make Meteorological Center Leh a world class scientific and service department in the coming years.

With the availability of quality data from Ladakh, IMD will generate city specific forecast based on

numerical models.

To help the administration and the people of Ladakh, IMD will provide a range of weather forecast services, ranging from short (3 days) and medium (12 days) to extended (1 month) period to all the stake

holders on a daily basis for both the districts (Leh and Kargil).

Apart from district level forecast, IMD will provide forecast for important tourist places like Nubra, Changthang, Pangong Lake, Zanskar, Kargil, Drass, Dha-Baima(Aryan valley), Khalsi, etc. Some important services are Highway Forecast, Forecast for Mountaineering, Trekking, agriculture, Flash Flood warning, information on gusty winds, low and high temperatures, etc.

It will provide weather services to the administration and the people of Ladakh and make Ladakh safe and secure from the vagaries of weather.

On this occasion and is Sh. R K Mathur, Hon’ble Lt. Governor ( Ladakh ) and Sh. J.T.Namgyal, Hon’ble Member of Parliament from Ladakh in the presence of Dr. M. Rajeevan, Secretary,Ministry of Earth Sciences, Dr. M. Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology, IMD, Sh. Anand Sharma, Sc-G and Head Regional Met Centre, New Delhi and Sonam Lotus, Sc-E and Head, Met Centre, LEH. The establishment of this center is a very important step for better disaster management in Ladakh and Kargil area.