The observatory at Ranchi has a long history. It was established on 29th September 1955 in the premises of Birla Institute of Technology, Meshra. After establishing of B. M Airport Ranchi, observatory was shifted inside the premises of Airport under the jurisdiction of Meteorological Centre Patna. Later, Meteorological office upgraded as Meteorological Center Ranchi after formation of Jharkhand state on 15th November 2000, under Regional Meteorological Centre Kolkata on 27th may 2002. It was shifted to its own RSRW/Radar building in July 2005 and rendering the meteorological services to the general public of the state of Jharkhand and concerned agencies of government. Weather forecast for optimum operation of weather sensitive activities like agriculture, irrigation, aviation, road transport etc. and warning against severe weather phenomena like heavy rains,thunderstorms, strong winds etc. which cause destruction to life and property are rendered by this Meteorological Centre under the technical advice of Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) Kolkata.

Major responsibilities of Meteorological Centre Ranchi:

• To take meteorological observations and to provide current and forecast of meteorological information for weather-sensitive activities like agriculture, irrigation, aviation, road transport, etc.
• To warn against severe weather phenomena like thunderstorms, lightning, squall, heavy rains, cold and heat waves, etc., which cause destruction of life and property.
• To provide meteorological statistics required for agriculture, water resource management, disaster management to state Governments and non-Government agencies and general public for assessment of damages and insurances.
• Archival of data.
• Research and development.



Meteorological services provided by M. C. Ranchi:



• Daily weather forecast and severe weather warning for five days with two days outlook.
• Nowcast for thunderstorm and lightning for next 3 hours.
• Extended range forecast services for two weeks.
• Round the clock aviation meteorological services at B.M.Airport Ranchi and Sonari Airport, Jamshedpur.
• Bi-weekly Agro Advisory Services bulletin for all 263 blocks of Jharkhand for five days.



Objectives of Agro meteorological advisory services:



• Agro Advisory Services (AAS) provided for farmers in collaboration with Birsa Agriculture University Ranchi and Agriculture Department, Government of Jharkhand.
• Block wise quantitative value added forecast up to five days is issued to the Agro-meteorological field units (AMFUs) (Ranchi, Darisai and Dumka), Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), and Gramin Krishi Mausam Seva (GKMS) Kendra.



Major achievements:



• Agro meteorological advisory services are augmented from district level to block level (24 districts to 263 blocks) from 1 June 2019. An Excel based program is developed to make it user friendly for real time use.
• A location specific SMS based Nowcast and dissemination system is developed and implemented for thunderstorm and lightning warning over Jharkhand from 1 March 2020 by joint collaboration of Meteorological Centre Ranchi, Jharkhand space application Centre(Govt. of Jharkhand), and state disaster management authority of Jharkhand.
• Implementation of Extended range forecast services for two weeks.
• Various map based products using QGIS which plays a very important role in dissemination of weather forecast and warning to general public of Jharkhand, state Government officials, Disaster management authorities, Media, Railways, Road transport department, Power sector, Water resource management authorities, Civil work department, Defence authorities, Public work department, GKMS, KVKs, AMFUs, Academic institutes, Agriculture departments and Universities through website, email, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, Telephone.



Future plan for augmentation of Observational network:



• Installation of AWS at Tourism places,Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Gramin Krishi Mausam Seva Kendra and Kendriya Vidyalaya.
• Installation of Doppler weather radar at Ranchi.

---