Withdrawal of SW monsoons : 28Sep2010

One of the important roles of STH is to vigilantly monitor the weather over this region during the monsoons with a view to forewarn communities about impending periods of heavy/intense rainfall (which is the main trigger for most of the landslides in this region). 
Thanks to modern technology viz broadband internet & SMS etc and friends who are senior meteorologists we have been able to accomplish this task to considerable degree.
Also from Jun2010 we were able to monitor rainfall on a daily basis in the district with the 3 automatic rainfall gauges installed at Kalimpong, Kurseong and Darjeeling - the monthly rainfall being posted on this blog with a short analysis.

As a part of this role, the latest position of the SW monsoons is shown on the excerpt from the India Meteorology website

 

Praful Rao

Rainfall analysis 01- 20 Jun2010 (Darjeeling district)

Average monthly rainfall for the month of June (source) : 495mm

As we move into the third week of Jun2010, the rainfall we have received is well below the average rainfall (see IMD chart above) - yet we have had 3 fatalities in Kalimpong (see here)  and at least 3 major landslides on NH (National Highway) 31A (see here) which links Siliguri-Gangtok and NH55 (Siliguri-Darjeeling) - see here.
Besides this I know that Sikkim has had its own share of landslides which have disrupted water supply to the capital and roads

Praful Rao