Our Bureau
New Delhi
North India has been experiencing heavy rains in the past two weeks and as per IMD records the past two weeks were the two wettest weeks in the region in the last 14 years. From August 22nd to September 4th, the region had experienced three times of its normal rainfall leading to tragic weather conditions all across the region.
In the past two weeks, the North region has faced many tragedies such as – cloudbursts on the Vaishno Devi route in Jammu and Kashmir that took away innocent lives, heavy floods in Punjab unlike anything ever seen in decades, the third highest recorded levels of the Yamuna in Delhi and many landslides in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
In the past 14 days, North India has recorded 205.33 mm of rain which is more than the normal of 73.1 mm. The region has experienced 35% of rain in the past two weeks that it approximately gets in a 4 month period. And with the current forecast it looks like this is going to be the wettest monsoon in the past 37 years since 1988.
Since August 22nd, the total monsoon rainfall surplus of the region has hiked from 11.6% to 37% when last recorded on 4th September. This showcases the sheer fury of the rainfall in the past 14 days that has caused unrest all across the region.
The chief of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, has stated that this was a rare instance where the Western Disturbance converged with Monsoon winds from East thus causing heavy rains. He stated that we can expect the same till Friday as well.
“This period saw a rare instance of back-to-back spells of two-system interactions, that is, a ‘western disturbance’ bringing moist wind flows from regions close to the Mediterranean Sea converging with monsoon winds from the east. The first such interaction took place from Aug 23 to 27, and then another one began on Aug 29 and is expected to last till Friday,” said IMD chief.
