It will provide weather forecasts for popular tourist destinations including Nubra, Changthang, Pangong Lake, Zanskar, Kargil, and Drass

Leh in Ladakh now has a dedicated Meteorological Centre to provide weather forecasts for the region. The center was inaugurated by Union Minister of Earth Sciences, Science & Technology and Health & Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan via video-conference on Tuesday.

Located at a height of 3,500 m, Met Center Leh will be the highest meteorological centre in India. The Met Center will be a world-class facility for high altitude meteorology and will cater to the various kinds of weather and climate needs of the people and the administration of Ladakh.

According to Harsh Vardhan, the Ladakh region has lofty mountains with high slopes and no vegetation. There is a lot of loose soil and debris making the region vulnerable to various kinds of natural hazards, like cloud bursts, flash floods, avalanches and glacial lake outbursts.

There was a need to establish a state-of-the-art Met Centre at Leh to provide early warning and avert losses due to such weather events in future, he was quoted saying in a statement issued by the ministry.

To help the administration and the people of Ladakh, the IMD will provide a range of weather forecast services, ranging from short (three days) and medium (12 days) to extended (one month) periods to all the stakeholders on a daily basis for both the Leh and Kargil districts.

“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 of the important services to be made available are Highway Forecast, Forecast for Mountaineering, Trekking, agriculture, flash flood warning, low and high temperatures among others,” Harsh Vardhan explained.

He assured that the government will make every effort to provide the best possible weather services and make Ladakh safe and secure from the vagaries of weather.