Latest News, Pakistan Meteorological Department

	Government of Pakistan Cabinet Secretariat (Aviation Division) Pakistan Meteorological Department Headquarters Office Sector H-8/2, Islamabad - 44000			Website: http://pmd.gov.pk Email: pakmet_Islamabad@yahoo.com pmd@pmd.gvo.pk Tel:(+92-51) 9250367 Fax:(+92-51) 9250368

Press Release 9th December, 2015 COP21-Paris: Pak delegation meet WMO Secretary General Pakistan delegation led by Minister of Climate Change Mr. Zahid Hamid meets with Secretary General of World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) at COP21 in Paris. Madam Zakia Shah Nawaz Minister of Environment from Punjab, Mr. Arif Ahmed Khan, Secretary Climate Change, Dr. Ghulam Rasul, Director General PMD and DG CC also attended the meeting. Minister briefed him about climate vulnerabilities of Pakistan despite the least emitter including recurring floods, drought, heat waves, glacier retreat and sea level rise. Secretary General WMO appreciated Pakistan role in global and regional climate initiatives in disaster risk reduction. He highlighted WMO Flash Flood Guiding System and UNESCO Indus flood project. In response to DG Met report of progress on flood and drought initiatives in Pakistan, Secretary General assured to continue support for Pakistan in improving the climate services. Spoksman
Press Release 18th Nov, 2015 Installation of Weather Surveillance Radar at Karachi Agreement signed between Consortium of Japan Weather Association & International Meteorological Consultant Inc, and Pakistan Meteorological Department Agreement was signed by Mr. Yoshihisa Uchida, Project Manager CJWA & IMC Inc. and Dr. Ghulam Rasul, Director General, Pakistan Meteorological Department on 18th Nov, 2015 at PMD Headquarters, Islamabad.

Press Release September 18, 2015 Mutual Collaboration on Adaptation to Climate Change : MoU signed by InterCooperation and PMD MoU signed between InterCooperation(IC), Swiss NGO, and Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) for Mutual Collaboration on Adaptaion to Climate Change on 17 September 2015 at PAU, Peshawar. MoU was signed by Dr Arjumand Nizami, Country Programme Director and Dr. Ghulam Rasul, Director General of PMD. PMD and IC are both supporting University of Agriculture Peshawar in strengthening of the CCC.
Press Release September 18, 2015 Mutual Collaboration on Adaptation to Climate Change : MoU signed by UAP and PMD MoU signed between The University of Peshawar, and Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) for Mutual Collaboration on Adaptaion to Climate Change on 17 September 2015 at PAU, Peshawar. MoU was signed by Prof. Dr Zahoor A. Sawati, Vice Chancellor and Dr. Ghulam Rasul, Director General of PMD. Both the parties agree to continue collaboration on strengthening the CCC at UAP.

Press Release Date: Aug 13, 2015 Met-Office Launched Phone-Based Services Inaugurated by Chairman NDMA Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) launched district-wide Phone based Weather Information Service today, with the collaboration of Centre for Language Engineering (CLE), of University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore. The Weather Information System was inaugurated by Chairman NDMA, Maj. Gen Asghar Nawaz. Dr Ghulam Rasul, Director General PMD, Dr. Sarmad Hussain and Dr. Tania Habib from UET stated that it is completely automated system which will pick the weather forecast of any district from the computer model archive of PMD. Weather information service provides weather forecast of 139 districts of Pakistan by dialing the number 051-9250363. When a user calls this number, the user is greeted by the system and then asked for a district name. The system provides the next 24 hour weather forecast of the desired district to the caller. DG PMD further informed that more details on weather information will be added and the number of phone lines will be increased and specialized weather information system for farmers of different districts of Pakistan will also be launched soon. --sd-- (Muhammad Aleem ul Hassan) Deputy Director NWFC
Press Release August 03, 2015 Climate Related Maritime and Coastal Studies : MoU signed by NCMPR and PMD MoU signed between National Center for Maritime Policy Reseach (NCMPR), Bahria University, Karachi, and Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) for research on “Meteorological and Climatic Factors in Relation to Maritime Domain and Coastal Areas of the Country" on 3rd August 2015 in Headquarter Building of Pakistan Meteorological Department. MoU was signed by Mr. Sayyid Khawar Ali HI (M) , Vice Admiral (Retd) / Director General NCMPR Pakistan and Dr. Ghulam Rasul, Director General of PMD. The coastline of Pakistan extends 1,050 km (650 mi), 250 km falling in Sind province and 800 km in Balochistan. Through MoU between NCMPR and PMD will work together to conduct research in maritime and coastal domains to enhance scholarly cooperation. The broader areas of cooperation will include mutually beneficial activities which are determined to be desirable and feasible for the achievement of the objectives of joint research projects.
Press Release Dated: July 12, 2015 Time: 1700 PST All Weather Radars of PMD in Pakistan are Operating Met Office contradicts the baseless news appeared in media about non-operation of weather radars especially in Islamabad and Karachi. According to the Met Office spokesman, there are seven weather radars in Pakistan installed at Islamabad, Mangla, Sialkot, Lahore, D. I. Khan, Rahim Yar Khan and Karachi; All of them have been in operation since the onset of pre-monsoon rains in June. The oldest one is at Sialkot which was installed in 1978 but still working. The maximum age of weather radars is ten years but engineering staff of Met office has maintained their operation despite the old age. Latest Image of Islamabad Radar, July 12, 2015 1625PST Latest Image of Karachi Radar, July 12, 2015 1602PST Rapid developments in radar technology have introduced the added advantages in weather products. No doubt, there is a dire need to replace these radars with modern technology to cope with the challenges of the changing climate. Japanese Government has agreed to install two new radars at Islamabad and Karachi. At the first step, Islamabad Radar is being replaced by a Doppler Radar in two years. Afterward, similar radar will be placed in Karachi to monitor the weather phenomena such as Tropical Cyclones, Storm Surges as well as Tsunami in the Arabian Sea. Negotiations to install four new radars at Mangla, Sialkot, Lahore and Gawadar are in progress with World Bank. --sd-- (Muhammad Aleem ul Hassan) Deputy Director NWFC
Press Release Dated: June 4, 2015 Dr. Ghulam Rasul has taken the charge as DG Pakistan Meteorological Department Dr. Ghulam Rasul has taken the charge as Director General (DG) of Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) here on Thursday. On the occasion, Mr. Iftikhar Ahmed Mir, Senior Joint Secretary Aviation Division formally handed over the charge of New DG PMD to Dr. Ghulam Rasul in the presence of all Directors. Dr. Ghulam Rasul is a well-known scientist and a researcher in the field of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate Change who has more than 100 publications and research articles in the National and International journals. He has a vast experience in the field of agro-meteorology, meteorology, glaciology and climatology. He was awarded by SAARC Young Scientists Award in 1993 and won Senior Scientist Research Award in 2007. He is also working as a Coordinator of Climate Services Group in WMO (World Meteorological Organization), Co-Chair of Asian Water Cycle Initiative (AWCI) of Global earth Observation Systems (GEOSS), Member of World Bank’s Abu Dhabi Dialogue for Indus Basin, Member of Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Reduction (IDRR) of UNISDR and Vice-Chair, Academic Committee of Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) on Climate and Weather.