Cloudburst incidents: rising across India

In different areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Cloudbursts and flash floods have destroyed property and killed more than 20 people.

These two states have seen isolated instances of heavy rain during this time, which led to landslides and flash floods that hampered train and road traffic.

A cloudburst has a precise definition. A rainfall of 10 cm or more in an hour over a roughly 10 km x 10-km area is classified as a cloudburst event.
In simple words, cloudbursts refer to intense precipitation over a small geographical area, especially mountains, for a short period.

Cloudbursts do happen on plains as well, but there is a greater probability of them occurring in mountainous zones.
Cloudbursts happen when saturated clouds are unable to produce rain because of the upward movement of the very warm air current.
Raindrops, instead of dropping down, are carried upwards by the air current. New drops are formed and existing raindrops gain in size.
After a point, the raindrops become too heavy for the cloud to hold on to, and they drop down together in a quick flash.

The cloudbursts occur in very small areas that are often devoid of rainfall measuring instruments.
However, the consequences of these events are not confined to small areas.
Because of the nature of the terrain, heavy rainfall events often trigger landslides and flash floods, causing extensive destruction downstream.
Diseases:

Water logging due to cloudburst may cause the spread of water-borne diseases.
E.g. typhoid fever, cholera
It affects livelihood:
The stagnation of almost all economic activities, such as shops and farming, is affected by this extensive rainfall.
Damage to infrastructure:
Cloudbursts can also damage houses, roads, and bridges because of the sheer force with which the downpour occurs.

The difficulty arises out of the fact that they take place in a very small area.
Cloudburst can occur even outside the monsoon season too, which leads to difficulties in prediction.
Extreme quickness of event:

A cloudburst is a sudden event that destroys the infrastructural capacity, which hampers the rescue operation.
E.g. roads, bridges

Regulation of construction activities:
Minimising construction along riverbanks while paying particular attention to water level during times of severe rain.
Better forecasting:
Improved India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasting and the use of cutting-edge technology to track and predict extreme weather occurrences can help with early warning, evacuation, and preparation.
Disaster management should be included in the syllabus:
Disaster management should be included in the school syllabus, especially in disaster-prone areas, and give adequate training to students. It may help to mitigate the impacts of disasters.
Adopting eco-friendly approaches:

Adopting eco-friendly policies and eco-sensitive tourism is essential for developing the ecologically vulnerable region.
E.g. the use of geotextiles for road and railway embankments.

Forecasts for a very small area can be done through the use of Doppler Radar.
Through them, it is possible to forecast the possibility of cloudbursts about six hours in advance.
With the latest additions, the IMD now has 33 operational radars in the country
E.g. Kolkata, Paradip, Gopalpur, Visakhapatnam, Machilipatanam and Uttarakhand etc..
Crisis mapping:

It is an open-source platform for crisis mapping.
They even had an international SMS number created for people to input information about the event.

Pic Courtesy: Britannica, envpk

Content Source: The Indian Express