Causes of Cloudburst:

Causes of Cloudburst 

Cloudbursts happen when saturated clouds are unable to produce rain because of the upward movement of very warm current of air. Instead of dropping down, raindrops get bigger in size and get pushed up due to the air current. Eventually they become too heavy to hold and drop down, leading to more rain than usual. There isn't a 'burst' in the literal sense, but an intense version of a torrential downpour that happens.

Can cloudbursts be predicted?

Although it is difficult to forecast cloudbursts, doppler radars can be helpful in predicting them. A doppler radar is a specialised radar that uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance. It does this by bouncing a microwave signal off a desired target and analyzing how the object's motion has altered the frequency of the returned signal.

But not all of the Himalayas, where a cloudburst is most likely, has a Doppler radar. Earth sciences minister, Jitendra Singh in Lok Sabha on July 23 said that the Himalayan region has seven doppler radars — two in Jammu and Kashmir (Sonmarg and Srinagar), one each in Uttarakhand (Kufri), Mukteshwar (Uttarakhand), Mohanbari (Assam), Meghalaya (Sohri) and Tripura (Agartala). Mohapatra had earlier told India Today that there are only 34 radars present in the country as of now. The number has increased by just 6 in the last 5 years.

The IMD website also states that "it is very difficult to predict cloudbursts due to its very small scale in space and time. To monitor or nowcast (forecasting few hours lead time) the cloudburst, we need to have dense radar network over the cloud burst prone areas or one need to have a very high resolution weather forecasting models to resolve the scale of cloud burst."

India Meteorological Department director-general Mrutunjay Mohapatra, while speaking at an event, explained that "when warm monsoon winds interact with cold winds it leads for the formation of massive clouds, which is also due to the topography or orographic factors".