Sylhet sits in Bangladesh’s Sylhet basin, a low-lying wetland region of seasonal lakes known as haors, where the monsoon combines with exceptionally heavy rainfall draining off the nearby Meghalaya hills in India.
In Bangladesh’s northeastern haor basin, the city sits near some of the highest rainfall totals in South Asia, driven by monsoon winds forced upward against the Meghalaya hills just across the border in India. This region receives some of the highest rainfall totals in Bangladesh because of its proximity to Cherrapunji and other extremely wet areas just across the Indian border, and flash flooding here can develop very quickly, making radar an essential tool for tracking incoming storm systems. Learn more: Flash Flood Warning Signs on Radar · Open the full Rain Map