Rainfall and other forms of Precipitation

Featured Articles
September 13, 2022
Chaos in a concrete jungle
Heavy rains and floods have battered Bengaluru yet again. Uncontrolled and unregulated development and concretisation of the city that pays no heed to the ecology and hydrology of the region needs to stop!
Urban flooding in Bangalore (Image Source: Thejas via Wikimedia Commons)
March 29, 2022
India, in the hot seat!
The intensity and duration of heat waves is predicted to increase in India and human induced anthropogenic changes are to blame.
A man sits under the scorching heat of the sun in front of Amer fort in Jaipur (Picture courtesy: Prabhu B Doss, Flickr Commons: CC-By-NC-ND-2.0)
February 10, 2022
87% of India's districts vulnerable to droughts: IMD
47% of India’s population is vulnerable to floods, says IMD's Climate Hazards Atlas
(Image: J Surya, CC-SA-4.0 International)
July 4, 2021
Did the moody monsoon shrink forests in peninsular India?
A study finds that while forests existed in peninsular India, they were replaced by savanna grasslands over time. And the weakening monsoon was the culprit!
Savanna grasslands at Nannaj Bustard Sanctuary, Solapur, Maharashtra (Image Source: Raju Kasambe via Wikimedia Commons)
June 30, 2021
Climate change likely to affect agricultural productivity in Maharashtra
Climate analysis predicts mismatch in rainfall and temperature patterns with crop phenology: Soybean, Cotton, Wheat and Gram crops at risk, finds Institute for Sustainable Communities study across three major regions of Maharashtra.
Maharashtra faces an increasing risk from climate change which is likely to impact the production of four major crops - Soybean, Cotton, Wheat and Gram. (Image: BAIF Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
December 13, 2019
Trading in virtual water
A study highlights the need to scale down the export of rice, maize, buffalo meat and other items to conserve groundwater in India.
A farmer uses a hosepipe to irrigate crops at her farm in Nilgiris mountains, Tamil Nadu (Image: Hamish John Appleby for IWMI, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
IPCC alarms India of a severe water shortage
News this week: IPCC releases its Fifth Assessment Report on climate change; Hydropower plants in Himachal find it tough to sell power; No toilet facilities in 20% of Goa households.
Swati Bansal
Posted on 06 Apr, 2014 06:23 PM

IPCC releases its climate change report, alarms India of severe water shortage
Himalayan lake in Sikkim (Source: Wikimedia)
Playing with Uttarakhand rainfall data
What can we do with daily rainfall data especially when it is available in usable formats?
Nisha Thompson
Posted on 06 Apr, 2014 11:39 AM

Daily rainfall information at a weather station level is very useful data. It can be used for analysis and planning. A district average can't help people plan or monitor a situation in a real time manner. It is possible to aggregate up for trends but deaggrating is impossible especially for places like Uttarakhand where the climate can change drastically from one area to the other.  
Rainfall data from Dehradun
Alternative farming method in Karnal
No-till agriculture, an alternative farming method, which helps prevent soil depletion as well as uses water efficiently, is being used successfully by farmers in Haryana.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 05 Apr, 2014 01:24 PM

Kalwaheri is a village of over thousand households comprising mostly of small farmers and landless people tucked away in Karnal, Haryana. The district, once the birth place of the Green Revolution, is now far from green.
Seed-fertilizer drill in use at Kalwaheri village
South Sikkim adapts to climate change
Climate change is causing heavy, brief rain spells in many parts of the world. Rain-shadowed South Sikkim is bearing the brunt of it in Northeast India. The video shows how the people are adapting.
Usha Dewani
Posted on 02 Apr, 2014 12:11 AM

Climate change poses a threat to all. Be it forests, water or agriculture- it affects everything. India's Northeast, particularly, has witnessed a great deal of this impact. Sikkim, the physical bridge between the Northeast and mainland India, is also bearing the brunt of climate change in a myriad ways with agriculture and water bearing the most pronounced repercussions.
Climate change affects agriculture
Maharashtra reels under hail storms and unseasonal rainfall
News this month: Maharashtra faces the impact of climate change; Developing El Nino raises fear of a weak Indian monsoon; India's water crisis to worsen in the coming years, says UN.
Swati Bansal
Posted on 31 Mar, 2014 11:23 PM

Maharashtra reels under hail storms
Unseasonal rainfall in Mumbai (Source: Wikipedia)
Catch water when it falls
Rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling are simple steps to achieve water sufficiency. India Water Portal along with local partners spread this message in Chennai on World Water Day.
Seetha Gopalakrishnan
Posted on 31 Mar, 2014 10:24 PM

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A temple tank in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu
When it rains, it stores!
In the four years since a programme called 'Mazhapolima', meaning bounty of rain, was launched in Thrissur, Kerala, the district has seen an increase in the quality and quantity of water in its wells.
Seetha Gopalakrishnan
Posted on 25 Mar, 2014 09:03 PM

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Rainwater diverted into an open well in Thrissur
Floods despite dams
In his bi-lingual booklet titled 'Floods despite dams' ('Barh to phir bhi aayegi'), Dinesh Mishra explodes the myth of embankments and hopes that the issue of floods will be widely debated.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 23 Mar, 2014 10:42 PM

Floods in Bihar have acquired menacing proportions following the embanking of its rivers, which has led to severe dislocations in the society. Estimates suggest that 70% of the population in north Bihar lives under the recurring threat of flood devastation (1). The 2013 floods affected more than 5.9 million people in 3768 villages (2).
Floods disrupt life in Bihar
A village becomes water secure
Implementing rooftop rainwater harvesting, treating the catchment and building a community water tank are some reasons why Patkhori village is starting to sail through its water crisis.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 23 Mar, 2014 10:12 PM

Mewat, a historical region comprising of the present Mewat district of Haryana and parts of Alwar, Bharatpur and Dholpur districts of Rajasthan, lies in a semi-arid belt. It experiences variable rainfall annually and receives, on average, 336 mm to 540 mm, as per the Mewat Development Agency.
Water scarcity in Mewat
Technology and public awareness to combat climate change
Using community radio, messages about adapting to climate change and methods to do it were communicated to farmers in Bundelkhand.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 16 Mar, 2014 10:30 PM

In Jhansi, Bundelkhand farmers experience great uncertainties in agriculture due to erratic rainfall. Covering 13 districts of southwest Uttar Pradesh and Northern Madhya Pradesh with a population of approximately 21 million, Bundelkhand is a typical semi-arid region.  Around 83% of the area is rural and more than one third of the households are considered to be below the poverty line.
Crops appropriate to deal with climate change
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