Highlight
- The IMD said the deaths and destruction near the Amarnath cave temple were not due to cloudburst
- There could have been flash floods due to rain in the higher reaches of the mountains: IMD
- A rain event is classified as a cloudburst if the weather station receives 100 mm of rain in 1 hour: IMD
amarnath cloudburst news updateThe India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday that the deaths and destruction near the Amarnath cave temple in south Kashmir were due to an extreme localized rain event and not a cloudburst.
According to meteorologists, the temple recorded 31 mm of rain between 4:30 pm and 6:30 pm on Friday (July 8), which is low enough to fall in the cloudburst category.
IMD Director General Mrityunjay Mohapatra said, “There may be flash floods due to rain in the higher reaches of the mountains near the Amarnath cave temple.”
Learn more about Cloudburst,
According to the IMD, a rain event is classified as a cloudburst if a weather station receives 100 mm of rain in an hour.
The IMD has an automated weather station near the Amarnath Cave Temple which provides weather forecast during the pilgrimage. However, there are no weather monitoring stations in the surrounding mountains due to their inaccessibility.
the death toll:
At least 16 people died and mud and rocks covered the tents and community kitchens near the temple, which were toppled by gusts of water after the rain on Friday evening.
Sonam Lotus, director of the Regional Meteorological Center in Srinagar, said, “It was only a highly localized cloud over the holy cave. There was such rain earlier this year as well.”
An IMD scientist said that the area above the Amarnath cave temple received 28 mm of rain between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm.
Meteorologists said that cloud bursts were very difficult to predict because of the very small scale in space and time.
To monitor or issue Nowcasts, a dense radar network is needed in areas prone to cloudbursts or very high-resolution weather forecasting models to resolve the scale of such events.
(with inputs from agencies)
Read also: Amarnath Yatra 2022: Terrible scene of cloudburst near temple watch