Wayanad received 6% of its annual rainfall in just a few hours on July 30: DTE Analysis

Wayanad in northern Kerala, where over 150 people died due to catastrophic landslides on July 30, went from rain-deficient to rainfall excess within a day. It received six per cent of its annual rainfall in just a few hours on July 30, an analysis of India Meteorological Department (IMD) data by Down To Earth shows.

The area, which was struggling with below normal rainfall on July 29, received very heavy rainfall on July 30, 2024 and extremely heavy rainfall at some places, due to which the rainfall figures became normal.

On July 29, Wayanad received only 9 millimetres (mm) rainfall, which was about 73 per cent less than the normal (32.9 mm) that day. At the same time, on July 30, 141.8 mm rainfall fell in a single day, which was 493 per cent more than the normal (23.9 mm).

Viyatri in Wayanad received 28 cm (280 mm) rainfall on July 30. Manatoddy received 20 cm (200 mm), Ambalavyal received 14 cm (140 mm), Kupady got 12 cm (122 mm), while Kupady AWS recorded 10 cm (100 mm) rainfall.

The IMD classifies 124.5-244.4 mm of rainfall within a day as ‘very heavy rainfall’ and rainfall above 244.4 mm as ‘extremely heavy rainfall’.

Monsoon 2024 in Wayanad

In Wayanad, about 80 per cent of the total annual rainfall occurs during the southwest monsoon.

According to IMD, when the monsoon starts from June 1 and ends four months later in September, the total average normal rainfall for Wayanad is 2,464.7 mm.

However, during the 2023 southwest monsoon, Wayanad had received 55 per cent less rainfall than normal. At the same time, Kerala recorded its worst monsoon of 123 years (after 1918 and 1976) in 2023.

According to IMD, Wayanad district received only 574.8 mm rainfall between June 1 and July 10, which was 42 per cent less than the normal for this period i.e. deficient.

This means only 24 per cent rainfall was recorded in Wayanad in the first one month and 10 days of Monsoon 2024.

According to IMD data, Wayanad recorded a total of 775.1 mm rainfall in just 20 days between July 10 and July 30, 2024. This is about 28 per cent of Wayanad’s normal average annual rainfall (2,800 mm) and 32 per cent of the southwest monsoon rainfall (2,464.7 mm).

According to IMD, till July 30 in Wayanad, Kerala, monsoon rainfall had reached the ‘normal’ category, with a deficit of 15 per cent. In fact, IMD considers even 19 per cent less rainfall as ‘normal’.