Western Maharashtra districts flowed into the top five spots of the wettest places in the country this monsoon season. Patharpunj in Patan tehsil of Satara district emerged as the wettest place in India during this monsoon as of date, with higher rainfall than Cherrapunji in Meghalaya.
Between June 1 and August 24, Patharpunj received 7,359mm of rainfall as against 5,938.4mm rainfall in Cherrapunji.
Patharpunj is followed by Jor (Wai tehsil of Satara district) with 7,003mm rainfall and Mulshi in Pune with 6,474mm of rainfall. Nawaja (Patan tehsil of Satara district) is at the fourth spot with 6,318mm of recorded rainfall and Valawan (Mahabaleshwar taluka of Satara district) is the fifth place with 6,084mm rainfall.
“The orography (lifting of moist air when it comes in contact with slopes) of the Sahyadri range created a huge convergence over the region which generated exceptionally huge cloud mass especially over the ghat sections and resulted in extremely heavy rain,” said Anupam Kashyapi, head of weather at India Meteorological Department (IMD), Pune.
Sanjay O’Neill Shaw, head of IMD Regional Meteorological Centre in Guwahati, said, “Many places in western parts of India have overtaken Cherrapunji in the amount of rainfall received.” He attributed this to the presence of strong monsoon system over the western part of India which is responsible for the heavy rainfall particularly in the Sahyadri ghat section.
{{/usCountry}}Sanjay O’Neill Shaw, head of IMD Regional Meteorological Centre in Guwahati, said, “Many places in western parts of India have overtaken Cherrapunji in the amount of rainfall received.” He attributed this to the presence of strong monsoon system over the western part of India which is responsible for the heavy rainfall particularly in the Sahyadri ghat section.
{{/usCountry}}“IMD has forecast below normal rainfall for the northeastern states of India as a result of which Cherrapunji has recorded only 5,938.4mm of rainfall till date. We have to wait till the monsoon ends,” he added.
However, till date Mahabaleshwar recorded only 5,696mm of rainfall this monsoon season.
RAINFALL FIGURES
Patharpunj (Satara) 7,284mm
Jor (Satara) 6,989mm
Mulshi (Pune) 6,441mm
Nawaja (Satara) 6,272mm
Valawan (Satara) 6,084mm
Cherrapunji 5,938.4mm