atmosphere Article Interaction of a Low-Pressure System, an Offshore Trough, and Mid-Tropospheric Dry Air Intrusion: The Kerala Flood of August 2018 Vinay Kumar 1,* , Prabodha Kumar Pradhan 2 , Tushar Sinha 1, S. Vijaya Bhaskara Rao 2 and Hao-Po Chang 1 1 Department of Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, Kingsville, TX 78363, USA;
[email protected] (T.S.);
[email protected] (H.-P.C.) 2 Department of Physics, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati 517502, India;
[email protected] (P.K.P.);
[email protected] (S.V.B.R.) * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 28 May 2020; Accepted: 9 July 2020; Published: 13 July 2020 Abstract: The present study examines the Kerala Flood Event (KFE, 15–16 August 2018, in India) that occurred along the west coast of India and resulted in ~400 mm of rainfall in one day. The KFE was unique in comparison to previous floods in India, not only due to the rainfall duration and amount, but also due to the fact that the dams failed to mitigate the flood, which made it the worst in history. The main goal of this study is to analyze and elucidate the KFE based on meteorological and hydrological parameters. A propagating low-pressure system (LPS) from the Bay of Bengal (BoB) caused the streak of plenty of rainfall over Kerala, the west coast, central India, and the BoB. Additionally, the upper-tropospheric anti-cyclonic system over the Middle East region inhibited a northward advancement of LPS. On the western coast of India, a non-propagating (with diurnal fluctuations) offshore trough was observed over the west coast (from Kerala to Gujarat state).