Heavy rains over an 8-day span from the 12th through the 20th of April 2004 brought widespread flooding to the Sylhet region in northeastern Bangladesh as the Surma and Kushiyara rivers crested above flood stage. The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center monitors rainfall over the global tropics. MPA rainfall totals for the period 12-20 April 2004 show almost 2 feet of rain (darkest red areas) fell over the Khasi Hills, foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, in the northeastern Indian providences of Assam and Meghalaya. A widespread area of 8-inch rainfall extends from eastern Bangladesh through northeastern Indian and over northern Myanmar (Burma). Such heavy rainfall this time of the year is unusual as the typical rainy season runs from June to September.

See SMALLER [.3 mb] QUICKTIME ANIMATION of accumulation See MEDIUM 3-D [.8 mb] MPEG ANIMATION of accumulation

April 21, 2004 Flood Potential
(Based on 3B42 Rainfall Accumulation Estimates for the previous 168 hours)
(CLICK TO SEE LOCATIONS of current POTENTIAL FLOODS)

TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Images produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC).