India, March 1 -- Multiple districts in the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have received heavy snowfall and rain this week, particularly on Thursday and Friday. This has led to landslides and avalanches. How intense is this precipitation? Is this usual for this time of the year? The gridded precipitation data of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) can help us in answering this question. This is what the data shows.

The IMD's data for precipitation is generated for 24 hours ending at 8:30 am on the day. This means that the data for February 28 corresponds to the 24-hour-period ending at 8:30 am on Friday, and shows precipitation for parts of both February 27 and February 28. According to this data, almost all of ...