Saturday, October 19, 2013

What Cyclone Phailin did : Rainfall data goes from 'Scanty' to 'Excess' in Darjeeling in one day


The average rainfall for the month of October of sub Himalayan West Bengal (SHWB) and Sikkim as per IMetD is 154.2mm (source) and Oct 2013 began with an unusually dry period where the first 10days of the month saw 'scanty' rainfall resulting in a 67% deficiency (see top map).
The rainfall dumped by Very Severe Cyclone Phailin changed all this.
Darjeeling (185mm) and Kalimpong (141mm) received the entire months rainfall on 14/15Oct2013 when it rained non-stop for 24hrs and as per the lower map we now have an excess of 145% precipitation.

It has been bone dry since 15Oct2013.
Meanwhile, the gradual withdrawal of the South Westerly monsoon continues over the Indian sub-continent and it should be exiting our region today (19Oct2013), see below :-

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
District Darjeeling

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