Cloudbursts

Why in News?

Recently, Director-General of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), stated that while full-scale cloudbursts aren’t increasing, India is witnessing a rise in Mini cloudbursts.

• Cloudbursts - It is a sudden, localized downpour of extreme rainfall, dumping 100 mm or more of water in a few minutes to an hour over a small area, typically in mountainous or desert regions.
• It is often accompanied by thunderstorms.
• Mini cloudbursts – It is defined as an extreme amount of rainfall, typically 5 cm (50 mm) or more within an hour over a geographical area. They remain “impossible” to forecast.
• Formation - It occurs when updrafts holding moisture in a cumulonimbus cloud suddenly collapse.
• It can grow up to 12-15 km in height through the entire troposphere (occasionally up to 21 km) and can hold huge amounts of water.
• Causes – Monsoons, Orographic lifts, Thunderstorms, Climate changes.
• Effects – Flash floods, Landslides, Soil erosion, Human losses, prone to communicable disease, Damage infrastructure.
• Prone Regions – The Himalayas, Western Ghats, Northeastern hill States and Coastal regions of India.
• Confluence of disturbances – The extremely active monsoon in northern India in a large-scale destruction of lives and property in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Uttarakhand.
• It was due to a confluence of several western disturbances (storms that travel to India from the Mediterranean) and storms from the Bay of Bengal moving northwards.
• Recent incidents – Cloudburst in Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag and Chamoli districts, Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh.
• Chennai also experienced a cloudburst, with several areas across the city receiving heavy rainfall.

Reference

The Hindu| Cloudbursts

Related News – Cloudburst | Flash Floods | Western Disturbance | Landslides