NEW DELHI: When visuals of vehicles stuck in waist-deep water in Ladakh started appearing on social media platforms on July 9, it caught many by surprise as the region is otherwise a cold desert. Just two days of heavy rainfall followed by unseasonal snowfall had brought Ladakh to its knees.
According to the regional meteorological centre (RMC), Ladakh’s annual rainfall is around 100 mm, and normal rainfall during the Southwest monsoon is 39.5 mm. But the torrential downpour on July 8-9 yielded close to half of the annual rainfall and much more than the total Southwest monsoon precipitation. Ladakh actually received a whopping 10,000% rain over normal for two consecutive days.
“In two days, there was 45 mm rainfall, which was way more than the total monsoon rainfall of the region,” said Dr Sonam Lotus, a scientist at RMC Ladakh. The RMC had issued a red alert on July 7, which helped minimise the loss. However, the downpour washed away highways and centuries-old traditional houses besides damaging public and private properties.
As for northwest India, which includes Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Delhi, torrential rains killed at least 88 people in the past week. Record downpours in different states destroyed roads, bridges, temples, hotels, private properties, washed away vehicles and inundated cities and towns. The National Highway 44 connecting Jammu to Srinagar, described as an all-weather road, too, collapsed.
Too much in too little time
Not just Ladakh, a city like Chandigarh received over half (573 mm) of its annual rainfall (1,059.3 mm) in just 72 hours this season. Himachal Pradesh received 100 mm of rainfall in just two days - 75% of its total rainfall for this month was between July 5 and July 10.
In the same period, Haryana received 61% and Punjab 55% of July’s rainfall. The catchment areas of Yamuna received heavy rainfall in past eight days, which caused the river to swell and in turn unleash floods in Uttarakhand, western Uttar Pradesh and low-lying areas of Delhi.
Uttarakhand received 183 mm of rainfall in the past eight days, which is 43% of the total rain of July. Similarly, Western UP received 50% of monthly rain in eight days. Low-lying areas of Delhi-NCR got flooded for the first time in the last four decades.
