About   RMC....


            India Meteorological Department (IMD) ,Which is one of the premier scientific institutions in our country, was established  in 1875.  It is the national Meteorological Service in India  and is the principal Government agency in all matters relating to Meteorology, Seismology and allied subjects.  It functions under Department of Science and Technology,Govt , of India There  are at present more than 8000  personnel working in IMD. IMD's network of offices are spread all over India

           The Director General of Meteorology is the head of India Meteorological Dept.with headquarters at New Delhi. He is assisted by 5 ADGs (Additional Director General) and 20 DDGs(Deputy Director General).

            For administrative convenience and technical control, six Regional Meteorological Centres (RMCs) function with their headquarters at Kolkata, Chennai,Guwahati, Mumbai, Nagpur and New Delhi.


Historical background of Madras Observatory--The oldest in our country
                The history of Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai can be traced back to the year 1792 when Madras Observatorywas established by Sir. Charles Oakeley the then Governor of Madras under the East India Company.

            The 10 ton ,15 feet tall granite piller monument, which carried the original transit equipment,  is still preserved and carries the name of the architect, Micheal Topping Arch and the year A.D. MDCCXCII.

        The first astronomer of this Observatory was Mr. J. Goldingham, FRS,  who started the recording of meteorological observations in 1796.


The Regional Meteorological Centre

A good number of meteorological observatories functioned in this region even before the establishment of IMD in 1875. These included Bangalore, Ballary, Coimbatore, Salem, Secunderabad and Tiruchirapalli (all from 1867), Cochin, Madurai, Machilipatnam  and Nagapattinam (all from 1868) and Wellington(from 1870).
       Regional Meteorological Centre at Chennai was established in April 1945 to supervise and coordinate meteorological services in the southern region, which now covers the states of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Union territories of Pondicherry and Lakshadweep.
              Under the technical and administrative control of the Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai headed by a Deputy Director General of Meteorology, three Meteorological Centres(MCs) function at Bangalore , Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram to render meteorological services in their respective states.
             More than 1400 personnel including 300 officers work in verious offices under RMC Chennai which includes three MCs, one Area Cyclone Warning Centre, one Cyclone Warning Centre , Six Cyclone Detection Radar Stations and seventeen Aviation Meteorological Offices(AMOs)