Udupi, Idukki record highest rainfall in 2018, serve future warning

Idukki, the epicentre of the flooding, recorded the highest rainfall in Kerala and second-highest rainfall (3,521 mm) of any Indian district over these 81 days.

Kerala Floods : Kerala now faces the ravages of the worst monsoon floods in 94 years, with 373 dead and more than 1.2 million in relief camps after 2,378 millimetre (mm) of rain over 81 days between June 1 and August 20, 2018–42% above normal or three times more than the Indian average for that period–according to data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Kerala is facing its worst flood in 100 years. 80 dams opened, 324 lives lost and 223139 people are in about 1500+ relief camps. Your help can rebuild the lives of the affected. Donate to https://t.co/FjYFEdOsyl #StandWithKerala.

With extreme weather events and variability increasing in urban and rural India, as IndiaSpend has previously reported, flooding is likely to become more common, the outcomes attributable as much to poor planning as climate change. In Kerala, the monsoons have generally decreased, and that was a reason the state was unprepared for such a ferocious monsoon, an IMD official told the Times of India on August 21, 2018.

Idukki, the epicentre of the flooding where 51 died, recorded the highest rainfall in Kerala and second-highest rainfall (3,521 mm) of any Indian district over these 81 days, 93% above normal, IMD data said. The highest rainfall in India was recorded over this period in Karnataka’s Udupi district (3,663 mm), which, however, was no more than 18% above its normal.

Kodagu in Karnataka, where 12 died after the district was ravaged by floods, faced the heaviest rainfall in 64 years, 290% above normal, between August 9 to August 15, 2018, according to IMD data.

Kerala received 255% excess or above-normal rainfall (98.4 mm) between August 9 and August 15, 2018, five times more than India’s average for that period, while Karnataka received 80% above-normal rainfall (50.3 mm) over the same period, 54% above India’s average, IMD data show.

In Kerala, 776 villages in 14 districts were flooded, with 1,398 houses “fully damaged” and 20,148 “partially damaged”, according to the government.

In 1924, Kerala received 3,368 mm of rainfall over 21 days, a deluge that appears to have been more intense than the 2,378 mm over 81 days in 2018. While there is no direct causal link between the latest floods and climate change, deforestation and human transformation of flood plains and mountain tops have been implicated.

Climate change, however, is the larger backdrop against which recent floods in India have been playing out, with more intense, more uncertain rainfall.

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