Wacky WorldIndia
Between August 1860 and July 1861 it received about 26,461 mm of rain, a record for a single year.
Why it happens
Cherrapunji (Sohra) sits on the southern edge of the Khasi Hills in Meghalaya, facing the plains of Bangladesh. In the monsoon, warm, wet winds blow north from the Bay of Bengal across hundreds of kilometres of flat floodplain with nothing to stop them. When they hit the steep hills, the air is forced upward, cools, and drops its moisture as rain. This is called orographic rainfall, and the funnel-shaped valleys around Sohra concentrate it even more.
Most of the rain falls at night. Cool air sliding down the slopes meets the warm monsoon air in the valleys, so the heaviest downpours often happen before dawn.
How we know
The record comes from rain gauges read by British administrators between August 1860 and July 1861: about 26,461 mm in twelve months. It is still the world record for a single year. Nearby Mawsynram, about 15 km west, now has the highest long-term average rainfall of any place with reliable records, close to 11,900 mm a year.
Did you know?
Despite all that rain, Cherrapunji can face water shortages in winter. The thin soil and steep slopes let water run off quickly, and decades of deforestation mean little is stored in the ground.
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