Face of Nation : Mahabaleshwar, a hill station located south of Mumbai, has received an average of around 250 mm of rainfall every day over the last eight days, putting it in the running for the record of the wettest place on earth, according to a report in ‘The Weather Channel India’.
Mawsynram in Meghalaya’s Cherrapunji is considered to be the wettest place on earth. Cherapunji has held the record as the wettest land-based location on Earth, with an average annual rainfall of 11,872 mm that is more than 10 times India’s average rainfall.
Cherrapunji receives heavy rainfall as the moisture from the Bay of Bengal condenses over the Khasi Hills. Similarly, the moisture from the Arabian Sea brings rainfall to Mahabaleshwar — the precipitation has been unusually high over the past few years. Maharashtra has received heavy rainfall this month, with Kadegaon receiving 293 mm, Shirala 326 mm, Walva Islampur 185 mm and Miraj 132.4 mm of rainfall between August 1-6, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in a statement. This has resulted in floods in many cities in the western parts of the state. Nine people died in Sangli on Thursday after a boat, carrying about 30 persons, capsized during rescue operations. As many as 16 were rescued, while others remain missing.
Till Wednesday, around 1.32 lakh flood-affected people in Pune region were affected by heavy rains and shifted to safer places. In Kolhapur, three villages with 7,000 people have been cut off completely and efforts were on to evacuate them.
