New Delhi: 21% above normal, North India has so far recorded its most spectacular monsoon since 2013, which is the year of Catalismic Kedarnath Flood. Widely, in August, the region has experienced the highest number of ‘extremely heavy’ rains since the Meteorological Department of India (IMD) in 2021.As of August 25, North India had logged in 21 extreme heavy rain incidences, the last year recorded last year had increased by 50% in the last highest, even though that month recorded high rainfall. The number of such events is likely to increase further by the end of the month, causing this August to become the monsoon of August among the most destructive in the region in recent years.The ‘extremely heavy’ IMD is the highest category of daily rainfall, recorded at a weather station, which has been defined as more than 204.5 mm in 24 hours.It is one of the four regions of monsoon, North India India, which records a rain surplus in all three months (June, July, August) so far – another first for the north since 2013.“In the last two months, Northwest India (IMD nomenclature for North India) has seen high rain activity mainly from the Bay of Bengal and sometimes due to frequent interaction between western disturbances from the Arabian Sea and continuous monsoon streams.North India (or North Western India) is a meteorological area including the states/UT of Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, UP and Rajasthan. Mohapatra said that most of the extreme rains in North India took place in two mountainous states and UT in Jammu and Kashmir.Extreme rainfall data for the region shows that in August last year, more ‘heavy’ (64.4–115.5 mm) and ‘very heavy’ (115.5-204.4 mm) were more in the incidents of rainfall, which recorded the number of ‘very heavy’ rainfalls as compared to August this year. Last year, North India reported its biggest month of August in 28 years since 1996, with the region 256.4 mm of rain. In the present month so far (till 26 August), 209.4 mm has been reported, five days still have to go.“Due to the formation of a trough in East Pakistan, the region has received a lot of rain in the last four days. The mantra is likely to continue for a one or two days,” said Mohpatra.The last three days have been the longest in this monsoon season in North India, 21.8 mm of rain alone with August 25, four times more than the normal day of 5.6 mm for the day.
