Heavy rainfall in the Kedarnath valley of Uttarakhand during the advancing monsoon phase in June 2013

During the monsoon season of 2013, the advance of monsoon over northwest (NW) Indian region showed large abnormality as arrival of rainfall over Punjab, Himachal Pradesh (HP), Uttarakhand, Haryana and Delhi occurred between 13 and 16 June 2013, nearly twice the standard deviation earlier than normal. Such an early arrival by mid-June has been exceptional. The event was marked by unprecedented very heavy rainfall between 14 and 18 June 2013 over different meteorological sub-divisions of NW India. The event also led to human tragedy in Uttarakhand, in which many local people and pilgrims lost their lives. This heavy rainfall in fact moved from Punjab and HP during 14 and 15 June 2013 to Uttarakhand. The rainfall between 14 and 18 June 2013 over NW India was highly organized and it was continuously sustained with mesoscale enhanced intensity over Uttarakhand, which dispels the opinion about cloudburst. The present communication is aimed to study the observational aspects of the vigorous and rapid advance of monsoon rainfall over NW India and its intensification during 15- 17 June 2013 over Uttarakhand.