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Flooded street in Kalimpong town at around 04.15pm/28May2026 |
I checked IMD forecasts, warnings and satellite imagery as I normally do each morning and found it was perfectly normal, in fact there was a slight improvement from a day earlier. There was a YELLOW warning for thunderstorm in place but that is more or less the norm through out this part of the year, for this region:
Extracts from IMD Midday Weather Bulletin for 28May2026 issued by RMC, Kolkata
Infra -Red (IR) Satellite Imagery of 28May2026 afternoon period
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Satellite image of 12.15pm which shows no major convective buildup around Kalimpong, even though there were clouds west of us, in Nepal.
It was around this time that we had the first burst of rainfall - which I reported on 'Hazard Alerts' our WhatsApp group. A member of the group, quipped that 'there was no rain even in Kalimpong town' which is about a km away from my home - so all in all it was perhaps just a very localized shower. Excerpt of my post is below:
The rainfall returned at around 3.45pm,and this time it was serious, with intense thunder, heavy rainfall and hail at places. Excerpt of my post is below:
Satellite image of 4.15pm (below) shows an increase in clouding especially in Nepal but still does not have the 'WHITE' clouds (in IR imagery) associated with intense cumulonimbus buildups and strangely, only Kalimpong had intense thundershowers whereas there was little rain over the other neighboring hill towns. The fact that it was very localized is borne out by the fact that there was no formal RED warning from IMD or the SACHET app.
The second burst of rain turned out to be certainly the most intense rainfall I have ever experienced - luckily, like most thunderstorms, it moved towards a NE direction after sometime and rainfall decreased. 
Placed above are the rainfall and wind charts which I have downloaded from the SaveTheHills Davis Vantage Pro2 AWS which is installed at my home.
The salient findings about the thunderstorm from the above chart are:
a. We had 82.8mm of rainfall in approx one and half hours.
b. Max (instantaneous) intensity of rainfall exceeded 500mm/hr
It was around this time that we had the first burst of rainfall - which I reported on 'Hazard Alerts' our WhatsApp group. A member of the group, quipped that 'there was no rain even in Kalimpong town' which is about a km away from my home - so all in all it was perhaps just a very localized shower. Excerpt of my post is below:
The salient findings about the thunderstorm from the above chart are:
a. We had 82.8mm of rainfall in approx one and half hours.
b. Max (instantaneous) intensity of rainfall exceeded 500mm/hr
24hr Rainfall (in mm) data of 28May2026 (IMD):
On 28May2026,there was no major weather system which gave Kalimpong this rainfall, rather it was an isolated cell which gave us this very localized rainfall and therein lies the danger - such weather is very difficult to forecast and difficult to detect in satellite imagery.
Kalimpong 79.2; Siliguri 40.5; Darjeeling 1.2; Pedong 2; Gangtok 2.1; Mangan 0
On 28May2026,there was no major weather system which gave Kalimpong this rainfall, rather it was an isolated cell which gave us this very localized rainfall and therein lies the danger - such weather is very difficult to forecast and difficult to detect in satellite imagery.
Kalimpong 79.2; Siliguri 40.5; Darjeeling 1.2; Pedong 2; Gangtok 2.1; Mangan 0
Damage/Casualties
As per the information available to me, except for damage to electric poles at places and a number of trees which were uprooted, there has not been any major damage to lives or property due to yesterday's extreme rainfall event.
This maybe due to the fact that in May2026, Kalimpong has had only 125.2mm of rain prior to yesterday's deluge and that we had only 9mm of rain in the last week.
Lucky us.
As per the information available to me, except for damage to electric poles at places and a number of trees which were uprooted, there has not been any major damage to lives or property due to yesterday's extreme rainfall event.
This maybe due to the fact that in May2026, Kalimpong has had only 125.2mm of rain prior to yesterday's deluge and that we had only 9mm of rain in the last week.
Lucky us.
Verified video
Location: Next to Kodamull building, RCM Road Kalimpong
Need of the hour: Cleaning, maintenance, and upgradation of the drainage system.
If Kalimpong — or any mountain town — is to withstand such torrential volumes of storm water, we must urgently address the condition of our drainage infrastructure. Existing drains need regular cleaning and maintenance, while the entire system requires systematic upgradation to cope with increasingly intense rainfall events.
Photo video credits: Naresh Changia, Kalimpong
Praful Rao
SaveTheHills
savethehills@gmail.com
9475033744
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