With 1,091mm since June 1, Harnai, a
village in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district, has received maximum amount of
rain in the state. The amount of rain is almost half the village’s annual
average rain since June 1 and twice its monthly average for June.
According to the weather department, the
annual average rainfall for Harnai is 2,348 mm and the mean total for June is
620mm.
Harnai is followed by Mahabaleshwar at 698
mm. The annual average for Harnai is at par with the monthly average rain for
June at Mawsynram in Meghalaya (2348mm), which has the highest rainfall in the
world, according to the Guinness World records and records 9,000mm plus as the
annual average.
The weather bureau identified three main factors
for heavy rain in Harnai. “The southwest monsoon, two weather systems – an
off-shore trough (low pressure area that pulls moisture) all the way from south
Gujarat to Kerala and a mid-level circulation (weather depression) north of the
Konkan coast led to the heavy rain,” said Dr KJ Ramesh, director general,
meteorology, India Meteorological Department (IMD). “Although the entire west
coast should get excess rain, some locations like Harnai will get surplus owing
to its location and current weather factors.”
Spread across 600 hectares with a
population of 7,274 residents (2011 census), Harnai is a port with a village in
close proximity. The main occupation is fishing and every evening hundreds of
fishing boats gather at the port to auction their catch. The fish auction is
the essential trade for villagers and their catch is sent all across the Konkan
coast, especially Mumbai. However, owing to heavy rainfall warnings, fishing
activity is put on hold every year from June to September.
“There has been extremely heavy rain over
the past eight days and the local collector’s office has asked us to not
venture into the sea because of strong winds,” said N Varadkar, local
fisherman. “We ensure our catch is sufficient by second-last week of May, so
that we do not face problems during the monsoon.”
The weather department has predicted
widespread heavy rain, which means 76-100% rain at most weather stations in the
area, for the entire Konkan coast, for the rest of the week. “Coastal areas
like Harnai, which were not active with regard to rainfall up till June 12 this
year, have been extremely active in terms of reporting rain over the last one
week. These coastal stations have a tendency to record very high amount of rain
with levels above 200mm in 24 hours, which is normal for these areas,” said KS
Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, IMD.
Last year on June 24, Harnai had recorded
its second highest rainfall in 24 hours at 361.6mm. The all-time high 24-hour
rain was recorded in 1985 at 436.5mm. Between Sunday night and Monday morning
alone, Harnai recorded 134 mm. “The levels are expected to be much more over
the course of the monsoon in the coming months,” said Hosalikar.
Under the weather department’s
classification, 15.6mm to 64.4mm of rain is considered ‘moderate’, 64.5mm to
115.5mm is ‘heavy’, 115.6mm to 204.4mm is ‘very heavy’ and more than 204.5mm is
‘extreme’.