Late monsoon rains bring floods and landslides in Nepal and India

Late monsoon rains have caused significant damage in parts of Nepal, as well as the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Kerala.

Landslides swept away homes, bridges and roads after heavy rain and flash floods. Uttarakhand saw some of the heaviest rainfall, with more than 300mm recorded in 24 hours. Almost 200 people are known to have died and dozens are unaccounted for. The Indian monsoon typically runs until September but was delayed this year.

Meanwhile, a deep area of low pressure named by Météo-France as Storm Aurore brought strong winds and heavy rainfall to parts of Europe last week. Four people were killed in Poland, and power outages and transport disruption were reported in France, Germany and the Netherlands. There were 250,000 homes left without electricity in France, and the Deutsche Bahn cancelled all long-distance trains in Germany’s populous North Rhine-Westphalia state.

After relentless and exceptional drought conditions across the US Pacific coast, the past few days have seen some relief for parts of California and the Pacific north-west in the form of heavy rainfall and snowfall thanks to a category 5 atmospheric river. Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow regions of air that transport large quantities of water vapour through the atmosphere. Despite the wet conditions, a recent report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration drought taskforce foresees drought conditions continuing well into 2022.