Context
Recent cloudburst incidents in Jammu & Kashmir and the Northeast have renewed attention to these highly localized extreme rainfall events.
Explanation
- A cloudburst, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) is ≥10 cm rainfall within one hour over an area of about 20–30 sq. km.
- It commonly occurs in mountainous regions due to orographic lifting, where moist air rises, cools, condenses into cumulonimbus clouds, and releases intense rainfall.
- Cloudbursts often trigger flash floods, landslides, debris flows, and soil erosion.
- They are difficult to forecast because they are highly localized, short-lived, mesoscale weather events, often beyond the resolution of numerical weather models.
- Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs), Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), nowcasting, AI-based forecasting, and Mission Mausam aim to improve early warning systems.
- Disaster impacts are amplified by poor drainage, deforestation, riverbed encroachments, and construction in hazard-prone zones.
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Cloudburst Forecasting and Disaster Preparedness