Shillong: Heavy rains continued to batter most parts of northeast on Thursday, with Assam and Meghalaya being the worst hit states. In view of the forecast of heavy rainfall during the next five days, the Meghalaya government ordered all schools to remain closed from June 17 to June 20. The respective District Commissioners (DCs) are advised to assess and examine on a case-to-case basis, on the safety for reopening schools in their respective districts, an official order stated further.
Read the full order here:
Meanwhile, the Met office said the southwest monsoon further advanced into more parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and coastal Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday. It said the ongoing spell of intense rainfall is likely to continue in the northeast and sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim during the next five days.
“Under the influence of strong southwesterly winds from the Bay of Bengal in lower tropospheric levels and a trough in westerlies in middle tropospheric levels, isolated extremely heavy rainfall is likely over Arunachal Pradesh on June 15; over Assam and Meghalaya on June 15-16 and sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim till June 17,” it said.
Cherrapunji logs 811.6 mm of rainfall in a day, highest in June in 27 years
As monsoon rain pummelled the Northeast, Cherrapunji in Meghalaya recorded a massive 811.6 mm of rainfall in 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Wednesday, the highest in June since 1995, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. At an aerial distance of 10 km from Cherrapunji, Mawsynram, the wettest place in India, gauged 710.6 mm of rainfall in the same period, the maximum since June 1966.
One of the wettest places in the world, Cherrapunji has recorded more than 750 mm of precipitation on a June day on 10 occasions since the IMD started keeping records, the IMD data showed. On June 16, 1995, the town nestled in the East Khasi Hills gauged 1563.3 mm of rainfall. A day before, on June 15, 1995, it received 930 mm of precipitation.
(With inputs from PTI)
