Over the last 24 hours, heavy rains triggered by a series of cloudbursts claimed five more lives in the Tehri and Uttarkashi districts of Uttarakhand. With this, the death toll due to cloudbursts has risen to six. According to media reports, four people were swept away by mudslides in the Chinyalisaur area.
On Saturday, a 15-year-old boy was killed as cloudbursts hit the Ghansali area damaged hundreds of houses in the Balganga Valley.
Also read, Cloudburst in Uttarakhand brings massive damage to life and property
During pre-Monsoon season temperatures are normally high and whenever there is instability in the atmosphere, the warm air rises up. This is known as orographic lifting and sometimes the top of the clouds reach up to 15 km above the ground level.
Due to lack of movement, the cumulonimbus cloud takes the shape of a column of water. Gradually, the droplets become heavier and the cloud is unable to hold. Therefore, all the water held by the cloud comes down as rain. When 100 mm of more rainfall occur in an hour, it is termed as a cloudburst. A cloudburst has the capability to dump even 25 thousand tonnes of water, in a short period, over one square kilometer
It is not necessary that cloudbursts only occur in hilly regions. However, chances of flash floods are generally less over the plains. In the hilly regions, water gets channelized to lower areas in the form of streams of water, washing away everything that comes in its way – be it small or big structure. A similar situation took place in Uttarakhand during the last 2 days.
Now, conditions are favorable for some more heavy spells of rain during the next 24 hours. This is because a trough is passing along the foothills of Himalayas. Development of convective clouds cannot be ruled out, which will once again bring heavy rainfall. Therefore, cloudbursts can occur during next 24 hours. By May 31 evening, the trough will move to the south of the plains and rainfall will decrease significantly.
Image credit - airworldservice.org
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