• Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) for Africa and Asia, a 45-nation international organisation on disaster warning, has termed ‘Titli’, the severe cyclonic storm that devastated Odisha in October, as ‘rarest cyclone’.
• The UN-registered organisation said: Considering the history of cyclone tracks, no synthetic track projection captures the Titli type of cyclones. The forecast information available lacks actionable early warning information such as no indication of occurrence of secondary hazards, including landslides far away from the coasts.
• The RIMES has recommended that a detailed risk assessment has to be carried out for Odisha to understand the risks in the light of the Titli devastation.

Do you know?

• Earlier, India Meteorological Department had called the formation of Titli as a ‘rarest of rare’ occurrence.

Important value additions

About Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES)

• The RIMES is an intergovernmental body registered under United Nations.
• It was established registered with UN in 2009.
• It is owned and managed by 45 collaborating countries in Asia Pacific and Africa Region.
• India is chairman of the body.
• It operates from its regional early warning centre located at campus of Asian Institute of Technology in Pathumthani, Thailand.
• It has evolved from efforts of countries in Africa and Asia in aftermath of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

RIMES caters to differential needs and demands of its Member States by enhancing capacities for end-to-end multi-hazard early warning, in particular:

• Hazard monitoring, detection, analysis, prediction, and forecasting
• Risk assessment
• Potential impact analysis
• Generation of tailored risk information at different time scales
• Risk communication
• Application of tailored risk information in decision-making