Where its raining and where its not : North Bengal and Sikkim (Jun2022)

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya
 

Rainfall data of April2022 of some towns of Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

 

What was very evident in the rainfall of April 2022 was that Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts were deficient in rainfall as were South and West districts of Sikkim.
In North Bengal, areas which received a large surplus of rainfall were Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts whereas the hilly areas of Sub Himalayan West Bengal (SHWB) remained dry and similarly East Sikkim and North Sikkim went surplus.

Praful Rao with Shreya Gurung
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling -Sikkim Himalaya

Rainfall data of April2019 for Darjeeling - Sikkim Himalaya

Rainfall information of the region is shown above.
Towards the end of April2019, the first low pressure area of the year formed in the Bay of Bengal; it eventually became Cyclone  'FANI'.
No landslides were reported in April2019 in our region.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Rainfall data of Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya : March 2017

The precipitation of Mar2017 was a welcome phenomenon. In our region the rainfall,snow and even the hail was moderate with no landslides or casualties reported and the rain brought a relief from the forest fires, the acute water shortage and came as a welcome break for those involved in farming and horticulture.
And even though IMD predicts higher than normal temps in our region in the pre-monsoon period, temperatures here are below normal, ranging from cool to even cold.
It snowed in Sandakhpu , Darjeeling around the 11Mar2017 (see image below).

The most disconcerting event was of course the 4.5M earthquake of 27Mar2017 epi-centred 25km northeast of Kalimpong, near Pakyong (Sikkim) - see previous post.

Rainfall data collection and tabulation - Rohan Rao

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Weather Event : Hail storm in Darjeeling (31Mar2016)

In Kalimpong, where STH is based, the cumulonimbus clouds (top slide) brought in grouchy weather with a lot of lightning and thunder but surprisingly little rain.
IMetD has a weather warning in place for TS (Thunder Showers) and Hail for this region.
Though much of the chatter on social media was on how beautiful Darjeeling looked and ice-skating in Chowrasta, Darjeeling - what was missed was the damage to tin-roofed homes, the traffic jam in Darjeeling town when the schools gave over at around 3pm and perhaps the damage in the rural areas, which is not known at all.

Precipitation in Darjeeling : As per reports, 6" of hail along with 45mm of rain
                                       (between 1.30pm- approx 3.00pm)
Rain in Kalimpong : 3.8mm (between 1pm-3pm)
Rain in Kurseong : 16.6mm

Photo credits :
Compuset, Darjeeling
The Darjeeling Chronicle

One day's rain (25/26Aug2014)

All rainfall figures quoted above are from IMetD except for Kalimpong and Darjeeling (which are from STH rain gauges)
In Kalimpong, the precipitation was heaviest in thundershowers between 1.00am to approx 2.15am on 26Aug2014.
As is evident from the rainfall data, the heaviest rainfall took place along the plains of the Dooars with the mountainous regions actually receiving much less rain as such no major landslides were reported.
For more on the rainfall read here.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling