Saturday, August 12, 2017

Posted Saturday Evening:

With the Monsoon Axis stuck in the Himalayan Foothills, the heavy rains in G.West Bengal and Bihar have started...and Pradeep provides us the latest rain amounts
Rainfall in mm ending 8.30 am in West Bengal on 12.08.2017
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Hasimara - 478, Buxaduar - 445
Barobhisha -­ 440 , Alipurduar­ - 390, Chepan­ - 320
NH ­31 - 295 , Jalpaiguri­ - 295, Domohani­ - 250 
Diana - 230, , Coochbehar­ - 233, Murti - ­200 
Mathabhanga­ - 190, Dumka­ - 185, Neora­ - 170 
Sevoke - 150 , Gazoldoba­ - 140 , Nagrakata - 120 
Mohanpur - ­120 , Bagdogra­ - 105 , Bankura­ - 104, Malda - 102

In Assam no signs of floods coming down with Gossaigaon recording 371 mm.
Bihar too in the foothills are getting heavy rains with Bahadurganj recording 324 mm, Taibpur 315 mm and Forbesganj 295 mm.( From PJ)

Cherrapunji recorded 295.6 mm rainfall on Friday and crossed 5000 mm seasonal rainfall mark.
Seasonal rainfall: 5208 mm (Friday 11th)
Annual rainfall: 8740 mm (Friday 11th).
(From Shivkumar Mogal)

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New Weather Phenomena: Space Lightning:
As the rest of India is comparatively silent, i take this opportunity to provide readers with this  an unusual (newly found in 2001) weather phenomena called "Space Lightning". The Gemini cloudcam atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii monitor storms approaching some of the world's largest telescopes. It often captures bright bolts of lightning lancing down to the ground This time the cameras caught lightning lancing upwards ! 
It was not until 2001-2002 that Gigantic Jets were first recorded from Puerto Rico and Taiwan." Only a few dozen Gigantic Jets have ever been seen, mostly over open ocean.
A rare footage of Gigantic Jets leaping up from a powerful thunderstorm. The strange-looking bolts reached toward the edge of space.
Cloudcam video caught at least three of these jets springing from the tops of a powerful growing thunderstorm. The tallest of them reached all the way to the ionosphere some 80 km overhead.



Sometimes called "space lightning," Gigantic Jets and their cousins the sprites are true space weather phenomena. They inhabit the upper atmosphere alongside auroras, meteors and noctilucent clouds. Some researchers believe they are linked to cosmic rays: subatomic particles from deep space striking the top of Earth's atmosphere produce secondary electrons that could, in turn, provide the spark for these upward bolts.

The link to cosmic rays is particularly interesting at this time. For the past two years, space weather balloons have observed a steady increase in deep space radiation penetrating our atmosphere. This increase is largely due to the decline in the solar cycle. Flagging solar wind pressure and weakening sunspot magnetic fields allow more cosmic rays into the inner solar system--a trend which is expected to continue for for years to come. These changes could add up to more Gigantic Jets in the future. 
Article courtesy Spaceweather.com. Excerpts from spaceweather .com. More on this here.

4 comments:

sset said...

Quite common for august month, monsoon to go in break phase.
From vagaries historical blogs - 2016,2015 Rajesh sir has given good explanations

http://www.vagaries.in/2016/08/mumbai-seeing-almost-dry-days.html
http://www.vagaries.in/2015/08/weekend-estimate-coming-up-by-11.html

Not sure why we call break -it still rains NE,Himalayas - every state needs to receive rain and of-course thunders to water starved TN !

Vinod Desai said...

Some good early morning rains in mumbai and thane

sset said...

Heavy rains over navi mumbai since last 2 days - gradually increasing.

Cosmic rays usually have radiation properties comprising of hydrogen and helium. Earth magnetic fields shield from these impacts. Solar flares also belong to these family. Lots of fiction has revolved around mysterious origin of cosmic rays due to stars explosion and earth life destruction.

Vinod Desai said...

Rain intensity has certainly increased. We are seeing good on and off showers again since evening.

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