Rainfall data Darjeeling district and North Sikkim: July2013

The month of July2013, what was characterized by the formation of a number of low pressure areas mostly in the Bay of Bengal, off the coast of Andhra Pradesh or Orissa. These systems then moved inland initially on a northwesterly track and then later on a westerly direction drawing in moisture both from the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal.
It was this movement of the systems which resulted in excessive precipitation over central and west India and deficiency of rain in the eastern and the north eastern states.

In our region, Kurseong was the only town which had normal rainfall, the other towns all had less than normal precipitation.

From Aug2013 till the end of the monsoons, we will be tabulating rainfall over Gangtok and a few other places as well.

There were no major landslides in this area in Jul2013, except that on 30Jul2013 at around 6pm IST, what appears to be a 'cloudburst-like' condition in Upper Rimbi (W Sikkim) caused major damage to infrastructure in that area - mercifully there was no loss of life.

Unfortunately, we are unable to get rainfall records of the area.

Praful Rao,

Kalimpong,

Darjeeling district.