SCIENCE COLUMN
Himalayan foothills, and strong westerly
desh, Pakistan and some neighbouring
countries, to refer to the big seasonal
winds blowing from the Indian Ocean
and Arabian Sea in the southwest, bring-
ing heavy rainfall to the region.
The Southwest monsoon is very es-
sential, considering that on an average it
accounts for 74.2 per cent of the coun-
try’s annual rainfall. It is generally ex-
pected to begin around the start of June
and dies down by the end of September.
An excerpt from Rainfall-Runoff
conditions in Meghalaya Plateau (A case
study of Paham Syiem Watershed) by
Surendra Singh, published in February
2007, Section III reads, “Rainfall is
sometimes delayed which creates its un-
even distributional pattern. For example
at about 20 % share of monsoon rain
was reduced in the NE in 2005 because
of delayed onset of monsoon (Pattanaik
and Hatwar 2006).”
Findings of an analysis by scientists
at the India Meteorology Department’s
National Climate Centre at Pune, show
that there has been a major shift in the
pattern of rainfall during the southwest
monsoon season (June to September),
over the last few years. The moisture-lad-
en winds on reaching the southernmost
point of the Indian peninsula, due to its
topology become divided into two parts:
1. Arabian Sea branch of SW monsoon
2. Bay of Bengal branch of SW mon-
soon.
It is the second one that affects the north-
eastern region of India. This branch of
the SW monsoon flows over the Bay of
Bengal heading towards the Northeastern
India and Bengal, thus picking up more
moisture from it and the hits the eastern
Himalayas and causes a huge amount of
rain to the NE states, Bangladesh and
West Bengal. It may be mentioned here
that Mawsynram/Cherrapunjee, situated
on the southern slopes of the Eastern
Himalaya in Shillong, is one of the wet-
test places on earth for getting rains once
when the SW Monsoon enters the zone
and the next when it hits the Himalayas
and returns to Meghalaya.
This monsoon first moves towards
Sadiya in Assam and hits the Himalayas
in the same direction and causes suffi-
cient rainfall in the upper Brahmaputra
valley, before returning to Meghalaya
Table showing 14 years rainfall record in Cherrapunjee.
for short spells in the rain shadow areas
of Shillong and Ri-Bhoi district.
Dr Hayashi actually studied the ‘Rain-
fall on the Meghalaya plateau in northeast-
ern India—one of the rainiest places in the
world’ and analyzed the monthly and daily
variations in rainfall over Cherrapunjee
and Mawsynram on the Meghalaya pla-
teau of northeastern India.
“Cherrapunjee and Mawsynram are
well known as two of the places with the
heaviest rainfall in the world. The daily
rainfall variation is attributed to the in-
fluence of synoptic scale disturbances,
with a periodicity of 10–20 days, and
the orographic interaction. The annual
and monthly highest rainfalls over Cher-
rapunjee during the 31 years from 1973
to 2003 were much larger than mean
values,” he said in his abstract.
Again while working on the relation-
ship between atmospheric conditions at
Dhaka, Bangladesh, and rainfall at Cher-
rapunjee, India, he observed that to im-
prove flood forecasting, the understanding
of the atmospheric conditions associated
with severe rainfall became crucial.
“We analyzed the atmospheric condi-
tions at Dhaka, Bangladesh, using upper-
air soundings. We then compared these
conditions with daily rainfall variations
at Cherrapunjee, India, which is a main
source of floodwater to Bangladesh, and
a representative sample of exceptionally
heavy rainfall events,” he stated.
The analysis focused on June and
July 2004. June and July are the heavi-
est rainfall months of the year at Cher-
rapunjee. As per the record, July 2004
had the fourth-heaviest monthly rainfall
of the past 31 years, and severe floods
occurred in Bangladesh.
He found that active rainfall peri-
ods at Cherrapunjee corresponded to
“breaks” in the Indian monsoon. The
monsoon trough was located over the
winds dominated up to seven kilometres
at Dhaka. Near-surface wind below one
kilometre had southerly components,
and the wind profile had an Ekman spi-
ral structure.
“The results suggest that rainfall at
Cherrapunjee strongly depends on the
near-surface wind speed and wind direc-
tion at Dhaka. Lifting of the near-surface
southerly airflow by the Meghalaya Pla-
teau is considered to be the main contrib-
utor to severe rainfall at Cherrapunjee.
High convective available potential en-
ergy (CAPE) also contributes to intense
rainfall,” Dr Hayashi stated in his paper.
The rainfall chart created by the Cher-
rapunjee Holiday Resort (Table shown on
left) shows how the rainfall pattern chang-
es in a cyclic way. There are cyclic low
rainfall years at Cherrapunjee. The lowest
in the above-mentioned years was in 1962
at 6,807.0 mm. The highest rainfall re-
ceived in the recorded rainfall history was
in the year 1974 at 24,555.3 mm.
If we compare the annual rainfall
of recent years at Cherrapunjee with
the average annual rainfall of the place
in the last 33 years (1973 - 2005) that
is 12,028.6 mm, it is evident that there
is no such thing as the rainfall has di-
minished much these recent years. This
is what I am actually trying to establish
and the Cherrapunjee Resort owner also
drives the same point home. So next
time anyone tells you, Cherrapunjee is
receiving less rain, bombard him or her
with statistics and the science behind it.
Keep dancing in monsoon tune.
August 08 47