Most cities get between 50 centimetres and 1 metre of rain in a year. Mawsynram gets more than 12 metres. If all of that water didn't drain away, it would fill a swimming pool every few weeks. Almost all of it falls in just four months - June, July, August and September.
Why so wet? Mawsynram sits at the bottom of a wall of hills. Wet air sweeps in from the Bay of Bengal during the monsoon season. When it hits the hills, the air is forced up. As air rises it cools. As cool air can hold less water, the water falls out as rain. Over and over again, all summer.
Life in Mawsynram has been shaped by the rain. Many homes have grass roofs to soften the sound of the downpours. People wear special umbrellas made of bamboo and banana leaves, called 'knups', that cover their whole back like a shield. Even the school children learn to keep their books wrapped in plastic.
Nearby, the local Khasi people grow some of the most amazing bridges in the world. Instead of using wood (which rots in all that rain), they train the long roots of rubber fig trees to grow across rivers. The roots get stronger every year. Some of these 'living root bridges' are over 100 years old and still in daily use.