India Meteorological Department (IMD) completes 150 years

• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) will complete 150 years on January 15, 2025.

• In 1875, the provincial British government established the organisation.

• Henry Francis Blanford was its first (Imperial) Meteorological Reporter.

• The Calcutta cyclone of 1864 and the Orissa famine that followed just two years later triggered its formation.

• The organisation was initially headquartered in Calcutta. By 1944, it had moved to New Delhi.

• The IMD became a member of the World Meteorological Organisation in 1949.