Prelims – Current events of National and International importance| Geography.
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
