Rainfall data of Jun2022 of some towns in the Darjeeling -Sikkim Himalaya

The month of June got us in Kalimpong and Darjeeling scratching our heads about the whereabouts of monsoons 2022. While the North-Eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Tripura were affected by extreme rainfall, Kalimpong and Darjeeling had a rather quiet and dry month. Siliguri and its vicinity experienced heavy showers in the second half of June. The link about an event to note in Siliguri on 20Jun22 is attached here.

East and North Sikkim received extremely heavy rainfall triggering many landslides that affected the major roads and caused fatalities. Landslides in various parts of Sikkim have resulted in 8 fatalities and numerous casualties from 14Jun22 to 27Jun22, economic losses unknown.

Source: Pakyong Sikkim

Area: East Sikkim

 

Source: Voice of Sikkim

Area: Jholungay, South Sikkim

Landslides in Kalimpong and Darjeeling occurred on NH10 and NH55 between 12Jun22 and 28Jun22, causing major traffic dislocations and damage to the roads.

 

Source: Hazard Alert WA group

Area: Between Bagpool and Kalijhora, NH10

A detailed description of the landslides have been collated here.

Shreya Gurung

Ankit Mankar

Darjeeling District

Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

All about the SW Monsoons : Project BoBBLE launches off tomorrow

“The Indian monsoon is notoriously hard to predict. It is a very complicated weather system and the processes are not understood or recorded in science. "
                                        - Prof Prof Adrian Matthews (Univ of East Anglia, UK)

Project BoBBle

The project called the Bay of Bengal Boundary LayerExperiment (BoBBLE) aims for a better understanding of the actual physical processes so as to ultimately create more accurate forecasts.
Researchers from University of East Anglia and Reading (UK) and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton along with scientists from four Indian institutions: the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS) Bangalore, the Indian National Centre for Climate Information Services (INCOIS) Hyderabad , the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) NOIDA NCR and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) Chennai, will embark on June 24 from Chennai on the Indian research vessel Oceanographic Research Vessel ORV Sindhu Sadhana.
Simultaneously other researchers from India and the University of Reading will fly out in a British research aircraft to make observations in the atmosphere. The team will spend a month at sea – with data from the 250-mile stretch of international water beamed back to using mobile phone signals daily. Scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA) will release underwater robots to monitor how ocean conditions influence monsoon rainfall. Researchers will use this data to create computer models of the ocean to determine how it affects weather systems and rainfall over India. - full article

Highlights of 2nd Long Range Forecast update (02Jun2016) issued by IMD

• Rainfall over the country as a whole for the 2016 southwest monsoon season (June to September) is most likely to be ABOVE NORMAL (>104% to 110%) of long period average (LPA)
• Quantitatively, monsoon season rainfall for the country as a whole is likely to be 106 % of the long period average with a model error of ±4%.
• Region wise, the season rainfall is likely to be 108 % of LPA over North, West India, 113 % of LPA over Central India, 113% of LPA over South Peninsula and 94 % of LPA over North East India all with a model error of ± 8 %.
• The monthly rainfall over the country as whole is likely to be 107% of its LPA during July and 104 % of LPA during August both with a model error of ± 9 %.  

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

STH activities: sensitizing the Community about Cyclone 'Roanu' in the local news today

Since many people of this region were unaware about the cyclone, we had a report on Cyclone 'Roanu' published in Himalaya Darpan along with the track of the storm. Himalaya Darpan is a Nepali language newspaper which commands the largest readership amongst the local people here.
Briefly the report states that the yesterday's rainfall was not due to the SW monsoons which was still a fortnight away but due to a cyclone. We asked the community to be alert in case of possible heavy rain and ensuing landslides.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

Withdrawal of SW Monsoons from this region : 15Oct2015

Though we had a number of low pressure systems and depressions developing in the Bay of Bengal (see blog for details) in 2015, we have had only ONE cyclone (Cyclone Komen) forming in the Bay this year where we normally have around 4-5.
There is much literature available on the internet on the trend in the frequency of cyclonic disturbances in the Bay of Bengal, this is just one such article.


Praful Rao
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

STH Storm watch : Monsoon progress and reporting the first low pressure of the season

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

After a final sting, the SW monsoons of 2012 withdraw from the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalayas

Death toll due to Landslides in 2012

Uttarkhand - 32 (official - unofficial figures in the media peg this at 45)
Sikkim        - 34 ( 24 died on 22Sep2012)
Deaths also occurred in the North Eastern states of India for which figures are awaited.

Praful Rao