The deep tropical depression causing the heavy flooding across Bangladesh, parts of India and Myanmar appears to be easing as the system moves further west deeper into India.
Notwithstanding this, much of Myanmar, Bangladesh and parts of India is affected by floods from the event. It is known that flooding has claimed at least 27 lives in affected areas of Myanmar and that may rise. It is also known that people have been turned away from relief shelters and flooding has overwhelmed the ability of local services to address.
Heavy rain storms continued across Bangladesh for the 1 August but falls appear to be easing for the 2 August. The attached satellite photo acquired from NASA 2 August 2015 (MODIS) is showing more breaks within the clouds over Bangladesh. Heavy thunderstorm cells are visible to the west of Bangladesh into India.
While there is substantial cloud cover, there appears to be less incidence of heavy rain for the 2 August.
Parts of Bangladesh endured a very wet 1 August with rainfall varying from nil to as much as 202 mm for centres underneath thunderstorm cells.
According to the Bangladesh Meteorology Department weather stations, the following rainfall totals are observed for 1 August 2015:-
Cox Bazar - 202 mm.
Kutubdia - 112 mm.
Teknaf - 90 mm.
Faridpur - 79 mm.
Jessore - 78 mm.
Barisal and Rangamati - 71 mm.
Mymen Singh - 58 mm.
Maijdi - 48 mm.
Notwithstanding a possible break in the monsoon, it is evident that too much rain has fallen and vast areas of land and rice fields are inundated. In an area where monsoon rains are crucial for the rice industry, too little rain in this region is an issue but too much rain such as what has occurred is also an issue.
In nearby Kolkata (Former Calcutta), a local weather station has recorded 36.52 inches of rain for the month of July which is approximately 927 mm. Of this, 8.98 inches fell between the 25 and 31 July which is approximately 229 mm.
It is expected that as August progresses, the intense monsoon rains will ease which should allow flooding to subside across the region.
In addition to the flooding in Bangladesh, parts of Myanmar are also badly affected. It is identified as at 3 August that 47 lives have been lost in the flooding. Some 212,000 hectares of farmland is inundated and 12 of 15 Divisions across the country are affected in some way. The worst affected regions include Mandalay and Sagong. This event has impacted 3 countries.