The second closest rainfall record was held by nearby Cherrapunji, another wet place, where the 24-hour rainfall on Friday was 972mm. For the past three days, large areas of Meghalaya and particularly around Sohra, have been battered with extremely heavy rain.
Meghalaya’s Mawsynram — the world’s wettest place — rewrote its June rainfall records held since 1940. The 24-hour rainfall recorded here on Friday was a whopping 1003.6mm, surpassing the previous record of 945.4mm of 1966.
The second closest rainfall record was held by nearby Cherrapunji, another wet place, where the 24-hour rainfall on Friday was 972mm. For the past three days, large areas of Meghalaya and particularly around Sohra, have been battered with extremely heavy rain. For three consecutive days since June 15, the 24-hour rain recorded in Cherrapunji were — 811mm, 673.6mm and 972mm. These include the third wettest (June 17) and the eighth wettest (June 15) days in June in 122 years.
Cherrapunji’s record rainfall measuring 2,456mm rain in the past three days triggered one of the worst floods and landslides in Meghalaya in recent years. Nearly ten people have died in Meghalaya and Assam due to rainfall-related accidents this week. According to the rainfall data maintained by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the rain recorded at Cherrapunji since June 1 was 4,067mm.
Such extreme rain comes after last month’s surplus rain over the northeast India region. Between March and May this year, Meghalaya received 93 per cent surplus rain and had ended as one of the wettest northeastern states.
For added perspective, the rainfall received at Cherrapunji was more than what Mumbai would record during an entire monsoon season between June to September. The average monsoon season rainfall of Mumbai is 2,205.8mm.
Strong and consistent inflow of moist southwesterly/ southerly winds from the Bay of Bengal are reaching straight over to the northeast India since the past one week, resulting in such a deluge the meteorologists at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. Such winds along with local orographic and weather factors contributed to such high rainfall over northeast India.
Such extreme rain comes after last month’s surplus rain over the northeast India region. Between March and May this year, Meghalaya received 93 per cent surplus rain and had ended as one of the wettest northeastern states.
The IMD, in its forecast issued on Friday, has said that heavy to very heavy rainfall will continue over Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim till June 21.
Credit: Indian Express
