As monsoon rain pummeled the North East region, Sohra in Meghalaya recorded a massive 811.6 mm of rainfall in 24 hours ending 8:30 am today, the highest in June since 1995, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
At an aerial distance of 10 km from Sohra, Mawsynram, the wettest place in India, gauged 710.6 mm of rainfall in the same period, the maximum since June 1966.
One of the wettest places in the world, Sohra has recorded more than 750 mm of precipitation on a June day on ten occasions since the IMD started keeping records, the IMD data showed.
On June 16, 1995, the town nestled in the East Khasi Hills gauged 1563.3 mm of rainfall. A day before, on June 15, 1995, it received 930 mm of precipitation.
On June 10, 1966, Mawsynram had recorded 717.6 mm of rainfall. On June 7, 1966, it had received 944.7 mm of precipitation, the highest on a June day since the IMD began maintaining records.
The town had gauged a 24-hour rainfall of 623.4 mm on June 8, 2015.
“Mawsynram is at present the wettest place in India, with an average annual rainfall of 11802.4 mm (average of the 1974-2022 period). Sohra receives 11359.4 mm of rainfall in a year (average of the 1971-2020 period),” Sunit Das, Scientist E at IMD’s regional centre in Guwahati told PTI.
The Met office said the southwest monsoon further advanced into more parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and coastal Andhra Pradesh today.
It said the ongoing spell of intense rainfall is likely to continue in the North East and sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim during the next five days.
“Under the influence of strong southwesterly winds from the Bay of Bengal in lower tropospheric levels and a trough in westerlies in middle tropospheric levels, isolated extremely heavy rainfall is likely over Arunachal Pradesh on June 15; over Assam and Meghalaya on June 15-16 and sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim till June 17,” it said. (PTI)
