STH Activities with team of researchers from Colorado University (18May2017)

Prof Andrew Rumbach of Colorado Univ is an old Kalimpong hand (see 1 & 2) and is here for approx 3 weeks to research impact of urbanization and inherent risk to rural communities. He is accompanied by Mr Brian Sullivan and Ms. Izabela Petrykowska who are research assistants from the College of Architecture and Planning (CU), Denver
STH would be working with them in the Darjeeling/Kalimpong areas.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Rainfall data of Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya - Apr2017

Synopsis of April weather.
We had the first cyclone of the year (Maarutha) brewing up in the Bay on 16Apr2017 but as predicted it affected Myanmar and a few north eastern states.
We had quite of lot of hailstorm activity in the region but no major damage was reported. We also published a mid-month bulletin on precipitation here.
A major landslide in Shimla caused quite a lot of sensation since a detailed video was uploaded on Youtube.

All maps are from IMD.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Death in the Mountains (09May2017)

A thunderstorm in the morning of 09May2017 struck a huge region as can be seen in the satellite image below. In the Darjeeling-Sikkim region, the rainfall was not intense during the storm but associated winds at around 0900hrs IST, knocked down several trees on National Highway10 (NH10) which links Siliguri with Gangtok .
One of the trees crashed directly onto the driver's cabin of a truck plying on the highway at Melli, killing him instantly.
This is first death due to hydro-meteorological causes in the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya in 2017.

Rainfall at Kalimpong on 09May2017: 24mm

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling -Sikkim Himalayas

Cost effective landslide protection measures which actually work!

Close up of bamboo check dams are from Nepal (origin not known)

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Insight : Disaster Threats (01/05/2017)

All about rainfall (01Mar-19Apr2017) - East and North East India

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong dist,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

STH activities (22Apr2017) : Spreading awareness about a fragile planet (Earth Day event at St Augustine's School - Kalimpong)

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalayas

Training program on "Earthquake and Landslide Management' at Darjeeling (20-22Apr2017)

The program is being organized by the Govt of W Bengal and SaveTheHills is facilitating the attendance of 6 participants from Kalimpong to attend the 3 day course. In addition, 4 civil engineering students from SMIT, Majitar (Sikkim) will be attending the event on 21Apr2017

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong dist.
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

STH Stormwatch : Cyclone 'Maarutha' is born (16Apr2017) and its early demise (Update of 17Apr2017)

The storm in the Bay of Bengal intensified into a full blown cyclone and was christened 'MAARUTHA' today. This is the first named storm of the 2017 Northern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclone season.

Update of 17Apr2017 (Extracts from JTWC bulletin)
' SATELLITE IMAGERY SHOWS THE SYSTEM HAS MADE LANDFALL NEAR TOUNGUP AND IS RAPIDLY DECAYING.'
JTWC has also issued its final warning on the cyclone considering it no longer significant.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

STH Stormwatch : The FIRST storm of 2017 (in the Bay of Bengal)

Location of Low pressure area is approximate

Update from JTWC  (1330h / 14Apr2017)
JTWC has upgraded the warning from LOW to MEDIUM and extract is reproduced below :-
'GLOBAL MODELS ARE IN AGREEMENT ABOUT THE SYSTEM CONTINUING TO DEVELOP RAPIDLY AND TRACK TO THE NORTH-NORTHEAST. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED SURFACE WINDS ARE ESTIMATED AT 20 TO 25 KNOTS. MINIMUM SEA LEVEL PRESSURE IS ESTIMATED TO BE NEAR 1005 MB. THE POTENTIAL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SIGNIFICANT TROPICAL CYCLONE WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS IS UPGRADED TO MEDIUM.'

Update of 15Apr2017 (JTWC)

Update of 15Apr2017 (IMD)IMD has categorized the storm as a DEPRESSION now (morning inference) and forecasts the storm to intensify further into a deep depression and move towards the north Myanmar coast in the next 72hrs


Praful Rao
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya