STH Activity : Updated Kalimpong weather available 24X7 on the web from 2 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS)

Realtime Kalimpong weather is now available 24X7 and updated at every 60sec intervals from two AWS stations

• Station 1 - located at my residence at Tirpai (see here)
• Station 2 - located at Kalimpong Govt College (see here)

You can peruse thru a summary of the days weather on the same website and also get the forecast (though this may not be very accurate!)
At site, where the AWS are located, a much more detailed record of the data is available both on the computer and a console (with data logger) - see image of console above.
My thanks to Project Shamrocc for making this possible.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

Project SHAMROCC in Kalimpong (29Feb-04Mar2016) - an event of note.

Prof David Petley has covered the technical aspects of the landslides in a series of articles posted day wise on his blog here.

About Project SHAMROCC (Sensing with High Accuracy in Mountainous Regions for Observations of Climate Change) involves participation of experts in various disciplines from the UK and India for the development of a Landslide Prediction System in the form of low-cost high density sensor networks and computer systems to be installed in specific landslide prone zones of Kalimpong.

Kalimpong was selected from among a number of areas for installation of the prototype equipment on the basis of historical landslides that have claimed lives/damaged infrastructure as well as on the availability of broad band internet in the close vicinity. 

SaveTheHills (STH), a Kalimpong-based NGO which has been working on landslide hazards for the past 8yrs actively collaborated with the project in this regard.

Further, the team installed two internet based automatic weather stations in Kalimpong which will provide real time weather data to SHAMROCC scientists both in the UK and India in order to observe, firsthand the effects of climate change and shifting rainfall patterns in the Darjeeling Himalayas. This AWS data on Kalimpong  is available here and is updated every 60secs.

It is hoped that the study will make landslide prediction feasible and accurate and the lessons learnt from this project can be applied to other regions including the UK as well.
Project SHAMROCC comes under the aegis of UKIERI (UK-India Education and Research Initiative) and is funded by the British Council.

My grateful thanks to the entire SHAMROCC team for their visit and the time that they spent in Kalimpong. It was wonderful.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

From the newspapers today : Landslide victims call a strike today in Mirik.

STH has reported on the landslides in Mirik here
Technically, as per IMD, 'March' heralds in the pre-monsoon season (Mar/Apr/May) when we will start getting our first rains.
8 months after the tragedy, it is pity that the victims of the landslides in Mirik have remained uncompensated and have to resort to a strike to highlight this issue.
What is sadder, is that with the WB State Assembly elections looming ahead, absolutely nothing is likely to be done till the monsoons hit us again around Jun2016.
The Telegraph has covered the story here.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling