History of MC Gangtok

This Unit of Meteorological Centre, Gangtok was established with a view to provide scientific and Meteorological services for the state of Sikkim and to cater to the need of various State/Central govt. departments, undertakings, public sector & private sector enterprises and the public in general.

Meteorological Observatory Gangtok was established on 7^th May 1955 in Raj Bhawan Area, Baluakhani, by the India Meteorological Department, New Delhi. An Agro-meteorological Advisory Services (AAS) Unit was subsequently established in 1978 in part of Ladakhi Mansion Baluwakhani to provide Agro-meteorological services to the farmers of Sikkim. Also a Meteorological Observatory was established in August 1978 in ICAR Complex Tadong for providing weather data to Agricultural Scientists engaged in active agricultural research. Further, four Part-Time Observatories, one in each district of Sikkim were established during 1979-80 under the Agro-meteorological Scheme and under the supervision of the State Department of Agriculture viz. Mangan (North Sikkim), Namchi (South District: Now shifted to Namthang), Gyalshing (West District) and Mazitar (East District).

Also the following Rain guage Stations under Hydro-meteorological Scheme of Regional Meteorological Centre Kolkata & North Bengal Flood Control Commission of Flood Meteorological Office Jalpaiguri have been established in Sikkim under the active supervision of various State/Central govt. organizations: Lachung, Lachen, Chungthang, Ship-ger, Chhaten, Sankalan, Dikchu, Kabi & Singhik (North District); Khanitar & Damthang (South District); Yoksum & Dentam (West District); and Rongli (East District).

In order to provide better Meteorological Services to the State, the AAS Unit Gangtok with a network of 2 Departmental Observatories, 4 Part-Time Observatories and about 15 Rainguage Stations has been upgraded to Meteorological Center Gangtok from 15.7.2003 and a Forecasting unit established in March 2004 aided by Satellite Data Utilization Centre (SDUC) equipped with Meteorological Data Dissemination (MDD) System installed in December 1999.

Due to ongoing modernization of Meteorological equipments and due to expansion of observational and communication networks in Sikkim, 1 Automatic Weather Station (AWS) has been installed at Meteorological Observatory (M.O.) Tadong in the ICAR Farm in February 2007 and 3 Agro-AWS and 10 Automatic Rainguage (ARG) Stations are being installed shortly.

Furthermore, the M.C. Gangtok has been equipped with Digital MDD for the SDUC Station and latest communication networks like High Speed Data Terminal (HSDT) and Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) facilities. Also Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) with a toll free number wherein Local Weather Forecast of Gangtok may be readily accessed by the public and end-users.

Under the National Agricultural Policy, the AAS Unit has been upgraded to State Agro-Meteorological Center (S.A.M.C.) Gangtok from July 2007 under the control of National Agro-meteorological Advisory Services Centre (N.A.A.S.C.) IMD Pune with a view to provide better Agro-Meteorological Advisory Services to the farmers of Sikkim especially progressive farmers and other end-user at District and Village levels.