10 all-time rain records broken in Himachal Pradesh this monsoon

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, September 15

Himachal Pradesh saw as many as 10 all-time records of the highest rainfall being breached in July and August. While July recorded seven new records, three were registered in August.

The oldest record being broken dates back to 1927. On July 9, Una recorded 228.5 mm rainfall, breaking the previous record of 224 mm precipitation on July 22, 1927. “It’s unprecedented to have so many records broken in a single season. It also shows the unusual rainfall the state had this monsoon,” said Surender Paul, Director, Meteorological Centre, Shimla. As per the weather department, the state received the maximum rainfall in three phases — July 8-12, August 11-14 and August 23 “The state received 224.1 mm rain against the normal rainfall of 42.2 mm in five days from July 8 to July 12. The deviation from the normal rainfall in these five days was 431 per cent,” said the Director. During the period, all district received excess rainfall.

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Pachhad in Sirmaur received 220 mm rain on July 10; the maximum precipitation it had received previously was 189.2 mm on July 26, 1973. Rohru in Shimla got 185 mm rain on July 9, beating the previous maximum of 170 mm on July 25, 1966. In Kangra, Ghamroor received 166 mm rain on July 9, breaking the previous maximum of 164.8 mm on July 19, 2021. Similarly, Nadaun in Hamirpur saw 160.5 mm rainfall on the same day, which again was more than the previous maximum precipitation of 146 mm it received on July 30, 1966. Manali also witnessed 131.5 mm rainfall on July 9, on the same day in 1971, it received 105.1 mm. With 83 mm rain on July 9, Keylong smashed the maximum 78-mm rain record set on July 28, 1951.

The deviation from the normal rainfall during the August 11-14 spell was 168 per cent. In these four days, the state received 111.9 mm of rainfall against the normal precipitation of 41.7mm. On August 14, Bijahi saw 102 mm rain against the maximum precipitation of 99.2 mm on August 18, 2019.

On August 23, the deviation from normal rainfall was 347 per cent, with Bilaspur recording the highest deviation of 2,263 per cent. On this day, Kataula and Pandoh received the record precipitation of 210.2 mm and 178 mm, respectively.

In these two months, 52 incidents of cloudburst were reported. Kullu district witnessed the maximum 26 cloudburst incidents, followed by Shimla with eight such incidents.