Cloudbursts Definition & Basic Mechanism

What are Cloudbursts?

A cloudburst is an extremely high amount of precipitation in a short span of time, it may be accompanied by hail and thunder. It is so strong that it can bring flash floods in regions as cloudburst suddenly dumps or throws a large amount of water. The rainfall rate is equal to or greater than 100 mm. 
They are more common in mountainous areas but can also occur in terrain areas. In mountainous areas, the warm air currents or thunderstorms follow the sudden upward slope of the mountain which causes cloudbursts. It is not the heavy rainfall that directly causes death and destruction however the consequences of heavy rainfall such as landslides, flash floods, etc destroy establishments and much more.

Basic Mechanism of Cloudburst:

The warm current of air from the terrain region pushes the saturated clouds upwards along the mountains. This updraft movement of warm wind along with clouds forms the Cumulonimbus clouds. Eventually, when it becomes difficult to hold on to so much water vapor and raindrops in the cloud, it sheds water with great strength and velocity. The shedding of intense rainfall over a small area in short-duration causes cloudbursts. One of the most important aspects of cloudbursts is that the Orographic lift is the primary cause of it.

Cloudbursts in India

Cloudbursts in India: 

Cloud burst incidences have grown during the past many years, especially in the Himalayan area of India. Following these occurrences, landslides and flash floods cause extensive harm to both human life and property. Let us look at a few cloudbursts that have struck India 

• Hyderabad suffered the worst devastation from a cloudburst, on September 27, 1908. As per Deccan Herald, it was recorded as 153.2 mm of rainfall, and then the next day 425,000 cusecs water came into the city destructing 19000 homes and almost 15000 people died.
• The 2005 rainfalls in Mumbai City cannot be overlooked, which astonished the entire country as it was the highest rainfall in a century. It was 944mm of rainfall within 24 hours and everything halted in the racing Mumbai.
• Then the Leh region of Jammu & Kashmir in 2010, almost got swept away by the cloudburst, which claimed at least 255 lives and injured many people. Buildings, hospitals, houses, and schools everything got destroyed by the torrential rains, mudslides, and flash floods. The rainfall peaked at least 150 mm over Leh, the rainfall was so intense that only within 30 minutes it poured almost a full year of rain.
• The cloudburst badly affected Uttarakhand’s Kedarnath in 2013, it resulted in a huge $285 million in infrastructure and $195 million in tourism loss. and over 3000 people went missing.

The most recent cloud burst occurred on 8th July 2022 near the Holy cave Shrine of Amarnath in Jammu and Kashmir in which at least 16 people were killed and many still missing. In 1996, the same place was also severely hit by a cloudburst.
However, the Meteorological department does send alerts for heavy rainfalls to the people. The Experts are still trying to work out to anticipate the area receiving cloudbursts so that people can be informed in advance.

Factor Responsible for More Frequent Cloudburst:  

There are numerous factors responsible for increasing the frequency of cloudbursts, especially in India. These are:

• One of the main reasons for the increase in the frequency of Cloudbursts is Global Warming. The World Meteorological Organization has already informed that there is a 40% chance of ‘Annual average global temperature‘ temporarily reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level baseline.  This prediction has been made for at least one of the years till 2025, so the 2016 record for being the warmest year is most likely to break any time between 2022-2025. 
• As the temperature will rise, the atmosphere’s capacity to hold moisture will also rise. Resulting in the warming up of the Indian Ocean, subsequently more warm moisture-laden winds will be moving towards the mountainous or Himalayan regions of the North. Resulting in cloudbursts in the higher regions like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Uttarakhand.  
• The increase in tourism over the last decade has put a lot of pressure on the hilly regions. In order to accommodate the sudden influx of tourism many infrastructural changes are taking place in these areas. 
• Large-scale deforestation in hilly regions is being carried out which possibly can be one of the causes of concern, as it raises carbon dioxide amount, directly contributing to global warming.  

Cloudburst-affected regions are suffering from land degradation, soil erosion, and the dislocation of plant and forest trees and due to this, the land has become very fragile and vulnerable to the devastating effects of climate change.

Solution to Reduce the Frequency and Effect of Cloudbursts:

Due to global warming, cloudbursts are likely to happen more often now, therefore, it is important to control the disastrous effects such as landslides, flash floods, debris flows, and mass gatherings. This can be commenced by taking measures like

• Large-scale plantations should be conducted in the affected areas to make the soil more robust.
• Systematic Government policies are required to monitor the establishment of villages and tourism near prone areas like a lake, rivers, landslide areas, and deep valleys.
• A faster and more accurate method to inform much in advance to people about the area where cloudburst is likely to take place.
• Build more sturdy homes and other establishments in such areas, in fact, these constructions should be above the flood level. 
• A huge water reservoir along with a number of micro-reservoirs should be built along with a better-planned drainage system.

On the other hand, to curtail the frequency of cloudbursts, the focus should be given to preventing the temperature from rising, and for that

• Environment protection acts should be implemented across the globe. 
• Any human actions contributing to large-scale pollution should be stopped immediately.
• Plenty of aforestation needs to be hauled.
• Lesser infrastructural changes in mountainous regions.
• Above all large-scale environmental awareness campaign is needed.