The main motivation of this comprehensive study is to understand climatological and fluctuation features of the extreme rainfall events (EREs) considering
detailed account of spatial variability of rainfall occurrences. Experiences suggest that the EREs are embedded in the large-scale, long period intense rainfall activities during the summer monsoon period. It may be noted that every year some parts of the country
experience floods even during large-scale droughts . Thus the main
objectives of the present study are: To identify yearwise large-scale wet and dry spells (LSWSs and LSDSs) over India by applying objective criteria derived from space-time rainfall climatology; To understand characteristics of extreme and spatio-temporal extreme rainfall events of sufficiently varying duration (1- to 25-day) over the country; and
To evaluate severity of the 26-27 July 2005 rainstorm over Mumbai Metropolitan City (Maharashtra State) in the backdrop of fluctuations of the spatio-temporal 1-DSG
(degree square grid) extreme rainfall over the country.