Monsoon rains hammer northern India by Rob McElwee
Severe flooding from monsoonal rains has left at least 50 dead and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
One of the worst affected regions is Assam where flash floods swamped over 500 villages in waist deep water leaving 300,000 people homeless. Over the past few days Assam and neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh have seen a series of mudslides that destroyed many buildings leaving scores of people injured.
Monsoonal rain across India is often heavy and persistent and can produce some of the world’s highest rainfall totals. Recent rains in parts of India have been particularly intense and have fallen earlier that usual. The monsoon begins sweeping across the Indian subcontinent in early June, reaching the rest of northern India before the beginning of July. This year’s annual rains have swept across the country two weeks before schedule, the earliest for over a century.
Despite the severity of flooding in places, the rains across the north provided immense relief to many from the blistering heat. Temperatures today dropped to around 34C (93F) - which is at least 6C below normal.
Forecasters are of course expecting further falls of heavy thundery rain across the north and northeast of India over the coming days.
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