Rainfall data Jun2016 - Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalaya

The monsoons arrived over the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya almost 10 days late (14Jun instead of 05Jun2016), yet the first burst of rains after a drought-like situation brought in floods in many areas of Dooars and Alipur Duar.
Many parts of Sikkim received heavy rains leading to the dams releasing excess water on the Teesta and Rangit rivers - this would have contributed to the flooding in Jalpaiguri.
There were no major landslides in this region.

Rainfall data collection and preparation : Rohan Rao

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
 

STH activities : Mapping rainfall in the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Since most landslides in our region are rain induced, it is vital to obtain and record rainfall data. STH has been acutely aware of this and rainfall data from 2009 for some of the major towns are available in this blog.
In this regard, what we found is that there is actually no shortage of rainfall gauges with most tea gardens having some sort of meteorological observatory and many government departments also maintaining precipitation records - however, gaining access to this data is a labyrinthine process, full of bureaucratic red tape (applications in writing, payment for rainfall data etc).
In this connection, many of IMetD's superb AWS stations are sadly not maintained and as such either give erroneous data or no data (and no amount of complaining to concerned authorities seems to set things right!)
To obviate this STH (along with a few NGOs) has decided to set up our own network of rainfall gauges in Darjeeling district and in Sikkim. Over the past 3 months we have procured 17 manual (Symon's type) rainfall gauges which will be positioned at various locations in this region. In addition, STH already has 3 automatic rainfall gauges available Darjeeling, Mangan (North Sikkim) and Kalimpong.

Therefore, for the monsoons of 2015 we will have rainfall data from 20 stations in the Darjeeling - Sikkim Himalaya displayed on this blog - it will be available for free and without any red tape.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

STH activities (02Aug2014) : Mapping rainfall in the mountains - a STH/KKKS initiative

Recording rainfall statistics for use by researchers, the farming community and by those who work in hydrological disasters has long been one of the aims of STH and towards this end we procured and positioned automatic rainfall gauges in several places in Darjeeling district and Sikkim. Data from these instruments is regularly posted on our blog all through the monsoon months since 2011.
Unfortunately, some of these instruments have become defective and we decided to replace these with the sturdy Symon's type manual rainfall gauges which are a lot cheaper too. I put up the proposal to procure these instruments for use by the farming community to Mr Bishnu Chhetri, General Secretary of Kalimpong Krishak Kalyan Sangathan who readily agreed to the proposal.
On 02Aug2014, after a talk in the KKKS hall, Kalimpong, aimed at standardizing use and recording of rainfall at all stations, 10 manual rainfall gauges were handed over to members of Krishak Kalyan Sangathan at the following villages of Darjeeling district :-
1. Towday 2.Gitdabling 3. Pabringtar 4. Payung 5. Echay 6. Lama Hatta 7. Kolbung
8. Mangwa 9. Singail (Kurseong) 10. Pokhriabung
We hope to include data from these stations in our blog from Sep2014.
Further, many NGOs from this region have requested that we procure these gauges for them also and so in time to come we may have a comprehensive network of instruments to map the rainfall of this region.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling.

Rainfall Data for Sub Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim : October 2013

IMetD classifies its rainfall maps under four headers :

• Winter - January to February
• Pre-monsoon - March to May
• Monsoon - June to September
• Post Monsoon - October to December              

Slide - 1 - Shows the last rainfall map for the Monsoon season in 2013 ie from Jun-Sep2013. SHWB (Sub Himalyan West Bengal) and Sikkim went deficient in rainfall throughout the season receiving 15% less than the normal average.

Slide - 2 - Shows the predicted withdrawal pattern (in red dots) of the South Westerly monsoon along with actual trajectory that was traced (in green lines). The rain bearing winds withdrew entirely from the Indian sub-continent on the 21Oct2013. 

Slide - 3 - In the first month of the post monsoon season SHWB and Sikkim recieved 30% more rainfall than the normal average (154.2mm). The excess rainfall was the result of two days of incessant rainfall on the 14/15Oct2013 caused by Very Severe Cyclone 'Phailin' when most of this region received more than the whole months rainfall in just two days (Shown in last slide).
No major landslides were reported, perhaps because the entire Oct was otherwise dry.  

For the full 2013 Southwest Monsoon end of the season report by IMetD click here  

Rohan Rao,

Kalimpong,

Dist Darjeeling,

Email - rohan.rao1313@gmail.com

Rainfall data for Sub Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim : September 2013

The monsoon season thus far has seen an extreme event (the cloud burst) that devastated Uttarkhand, while the North East including Sub Himalayan West Bengal (SHWB) and Sikkim (which normally receives the highest precipitation in the sub-continent) receiving below normal rainfall. On the contrary, Rajasthan a desert state had excess rainfall.
Total rainfall in the sub-continent has been 6% above normal which has benefited the agriculture sector immensely with increased food production and the monsoon is still very active in many parts of the country (normally the SW monsoons start retreating in mid September).
In September 2013, SHWB and Sikkim saw less than normal rainfall and that has been the trend throughout the monsoon season this year.

Unfortunately even with the less than average rainfall, landslides still seem to find a way of affecting us, with five lives being lost in the village Tamabung (Yuksom - Tashiding constituency)  in West Sikkim on 01Sep2013.

Rohan Rao,

Kalimpong,

Dist-Darjeeling,

Email - rohan.rao1313@gmail.com