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Rainfall on the Meghalaya plateau in northeastern India—one of the rainiest places in the world

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Abstract

Monthly and daily variations in rainfall over Cherapunjee and Mawsynram on the Meghalaya plateau of northeastern India are analysed. Cherapunjee and Mawsynram are well known as two of the places with the heaviest rainfall in the world. The daily rainfall variation is attributed to the influence of synoptic scale disturbances, with a periodicity of 10–20 days, and the orographic interaction. The annual and monthly highest rainfalls over Cherapunjee during the 31 years from 1973 to 2003 were much larger than mean values.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the offices of the Indian Meteorological Department at Cherrapunjee and Mawsynram for supplying rainfall data. The daily water levels of the Surma river at Sylhet were obtained from the website of the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre, Bangladesh. This research was conducted with the cooperation of Prof. Bhagabati, Department of Geography, Gauhati University, and Dr. H. J. Syiemlieh, Department of Geography, North–East Hill University, and with financial support from the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature for the project entitled “Global water cycle variation and the current world water resources: issues and their perspectives”.

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Correspondence to Taiichi Hayashi.

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Murata, F., Hayashi, T., Matsumoto, J. et al. Rainfall on the Meghalaya plateau in northeastern India—one of the rainiest places in the world. Nat Hazards 42, 391–399 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-006-9084-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-006-9084-z

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