Gelephu sits in Bhutan’s southern foothills near the Indian border, where a subtropical climate brings the country’s heaviest rainfall, driven by the same summer monsoon that floods the plains of neighboring India.
A major border town in southern Bhutan, Gelephu sits in the subtropical foothills where monsoon rainfall is dramatically heavier than in the country’s interior valleys. Because the foothills sit right where monsoon-laden air from the Indian plains first meets the rising terrain of the Himalayas, rainfall totals here are dramatically higher than in Bhutan’s interior valleys, and radar helps track the intense storms that can trigger flash flooding on the steep slopes just above the border towns. Learn more: Flash Flood Warning Signs on Radar · Open the full Rain Map