![]() What can be forecasted is the spell of heavy rainfall due to convergence of many meteorological conditions.The difficulty arises out of the fact that they take place over a very small area.But what is very clear is that events of extreme precipitation have been on the rise in the last few decades keeping temperature fluctuations in mind as a trend, that cloudburst events might be on the increase as well.There is a paucity of past data on cloudbursts in addition, since only some of them get counted – only those that result in death and destruction – there is a problem of accuracy as well.It is the consequences of such heavy rain, especially in the hilly terrain, that causes death and destruction. The rainfall itself does not result in the death of people, though sometimes, the raindrops are big enough to hurt people in a sustained downpour.Blocking path of rivers that may lead to temporary damming and creation of a reservoir and its consequent collapse.Flash floods – houses and establishments getting swept away and cave-ins lead to the deaths.Accompanying effect of Cloudbursts on terrain.Cloudbursts can happen in deserts due to enhanced convection. And by allowing the jet stream to easily withdraw the convection aided orographic winds to be attenuated, thereby, increasing the probability of a cloudburst situation.By allowing water laden winds to absorb more moisture from Terai.Hilly terrains aid in heated air currents rising vertically upwards in two ways – Cloudbursts can also occur when hot water vapour laden winds mix with the cold winds resulting in sudden condensation.One such cloud burst in the Himalayan region occurred when the monsoon winds were rising along the slope of the Himalayas and were sucked further by the ascending jet streams resulting in a very heavy downpour that caused devastating floods and landslides in June 2013. It is not essential that cloudbursts occur only when a cloud clashes with a solid body like a mountain.After a point, the raindrops become too heavy for the cloud to hold on to, and they drop down together in a quick flash.New drops are formed and existing raindrops gain in size. Raindrops, instead of dropping down, are carried upwards by the air current.Cloudbursts happen when saturated clouds are unable to produce rain because of the upward movement of very warm current of air. ![]()
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