Indian Meteorological department collaborates with China and Pakistan for weather forecasting

In order to better gauge the impact of climate change on the Hindu Kush mountains, which includes the Himalayas, and for data-gathering, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) will collaborate with meteorological agencies in China and Pakistan.

Key details:

• Earlier also, the IMD organised a workshop to discuss ways to establish a regional climate centre that will provide forecasting services and climate analyses.
• A regional centre will help to better forecast impact on Hindu Kush mountains.

Hindu- Kush- Himalayan( HKH) region:

• It considered the Third Pole [after the North and South Poles], is also the world?s largest store of snow and ice outside the polar region and has significant implications for climate.
• The HKH region spans Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
• It traverses about 5 million square kilometres and hosts a large and culturally diverse population.

Significance of regional centres:

• Alongside forecasting weather over long periods, the regional centres would provide data services, training and capacity-building, research and development.

IPCCC report:

A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last month highlighted the threat to the HKH region from global warming. Floods would become more frequent and severe in the mountainous and downstream areas of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins, because of an increase in extreme precipitation events.