Syllabus Section: Environment and Ecology (GS Paper I and III)

Importance: UPSC Prelims and UPSC Mains

Why in News?

• Recently, cloudbursts have been reported from several places in country.

About:

What is a cloudburst?

• Cloudburst is a sudden copious rainfall that occurs for a short period of time-limited in a small area.
• This leads to flash floods/ landslides, house collapse, dislocation of traffic and human casualties on large scale. 

Phenomenon:

• Cloudbursts occur because the warm air current from the ground or below the clouds rushes up and carries the falling raindrops up with it.
• This results in excessive condensation in the clouds as new drops form and old drops are pushed back into it by the updraft.
• During the cloudburst, the relative humidity and cloud cover was at the maximum level with low temperature and slow winds.

• Because of this situation a high amount of clouds may get condensed at a very rapid rate and result in a cloudburst.

• In India, a cloudburst mostly occurs in the mountains of India where the low monsoon clouds are stopped by the high mountains.

Cloudburst and Climate Change:

• There is a 90% likelihood of at least one year between 2021 and 2025 becoming the warmest on record and dislodge 2016 from the top of the rank because of increase in temperature.

Can we predict Cloudburst?

• There is no satisfactory technique for anticipating the occurrence of cloud bursts because they develop over a small period of time.
• A very fine network of radars is required to be able to detect the likelihood of a cloud burst and this would be expensive.

Source: Indian Express