Bombay, located along the west coast of India on the Arabian Sea, received an incredible 37.1 inches of rain in a twenty-four hour period on Tuesday the 26th of July 2005, breaking India's previous all-time single-day record of 33 inches set back in 1912. So far, 273 fatalities have been reported in Bombay alone and over 500 including the surrounding region of Maharashtra state. The summer monsoon draws warm, moisture laiden air over the Indian subcontinent from the surrounding ocean regions as result of the land mass heating up. It is not unusal for the monsoon to bring flooding to the area.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite has been collecting rainfall data since its launch back in 1997. TRMM captured this image of the rain over Bombay at 10:09 UTC on the 26th of July 2005. The image displays the horizontal distribution of rain intensity as obtained from TRMM's sensors. Rain rates in the center part of the swath are from the TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR), the only radar capable of measuring precipitation from space. Rain rates in the outer swath are from the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI). The rain rates are overlaid on infrared (IR) data from the TRMM Visible Infrared Scanner (VIRS). The image shows a localized area of heavy precipitation (red area) directly over Bombay. The second image shows rainfall accumulations from the TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for the period 25 to 27 July 2005. The dark red area of heavy rainfall (indicating a foot of rain) is concentrated right over Bombay and shows just how localized extreme rainfall values can be. 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).