What are cloudbursts and is climate change making them more frequent in India?
“It was sudden and swift,” Aslam said. A cloudburst followed by flashfloods hit nearly a dozen villages in Kulgam, filling homes with mud and washing away some cattle. A day before, on Friday night, another cloudburst in the neighboring arid, cold desert region of Ladakh triggered flashfloods and inundated parts of its major town, Leh.
The floodwaters entered the town’s main market, damaging shops, sweeping away vehicles and leaving its streets a muddy mess. Intense rainfall in the Himalayan regions of Kashmir and the adjacent mountainous cold desert of Ladakh last week destroyed roads and caused flooding of dozens of villages.Cloudbursts are a common occurrence in Himalayan regions but experts are alarmed by the increase in extreme weather-related events. Intense weather events, especially when more than 10 centimeters (3.94 inches) of rainfall occurs within a 10 square kilometers (3.86 square miles) region within an hour, are called cloudbursts.
They have the potential to wreak havoc, causing intense flooding and landslides that affect thousands of people in mountainous regions. Last year, a cloudburst triggered flash floods during an annual Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir, leaving at least 16 people dead. In 2010, dozens of villages and the main town of Leh in Ladakh were hit by the worst floods in its recent history.
Homes and farm fields were devastated and over 250 people were killed. Experts say the frequency of such events has been increasing in recent years partly due to climate change. They say damage caused by cloudbursts is also increasing because of unplanned development in mountain regions.
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