India's seventh Regional Meteorological Centre launched in Jammu

📌 Summary:

• Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated India's seventh Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) at Jammu; a similar centre was announced for Lucknow
• RMC Jammu will serve Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh with district-level and mountain weather forecasts
• It will issue warnings for flash floods, cloudbursts, avalanches, heavy snowfall, thunderstorms and landslides — benefiting Amarnath/Vaishno Devi pilgrims, farmers, hydropower projects, disaster agencies and security forces
• Doppler Weather Radars in the region rose from 0 (2014) to 4 (Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Banihal); 5 more proposed under Mission Mausam (Anantnag, Rajouri, Baramulla, Kishtwar, Doda)
• Observatory network expanded to 56 (15 manual, 25 AWS, 16 ARG); rainfall-monitoring stations up from 30 (2014) to 85
• Earlier RMC Delhi coordinated the region; services for J&K, Ladakh and HP now devolve to Jammu

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS1 Geography — meteorology and climatology; GS3 Disaster Management — early-warning systems for Himalayan hazards

📝 Prelims Facts:

• RMC Jammu = India's 7th Regional Meteorological Centre; under IMD / Ministry of Earth Sciences
• Mission Mausam — initiative to expand weather forecasting (Doppler radars, AWS)
• AWS = Automatic Weather Station; ARG = Automatic Rain Gauge

🔑 Key Term: Doppler Weather Radar — radar that tracks precipitation and wind velocity to forecast severe weather such as cloudbursts