Weather Updates: The Indian Meteorological Department has announced that the flash floods in Amarnath were not due to a cloudburst. According to the IMD, a rain event is classified as a cloudburst if a weather station receives 100 mm of rain in one hour.
Reports say that the deaths and destruction near the Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir were due to a highly localised rain event instead of the speculated cloudburst.
“It was a highly localised cloud only over the holy cave. Such rain had happened earlier this year as well,” said Sonam Lotus, Director of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Srinagar.
According to weather scientists, the shrine reported 31 mm of rainfall between 4:30 pm and 6:30 pm on Friday, which is quite low to be categorised as a cloudburst.
“The flash floods could have been triggered due to rainfall in the higher reaches of the mountains near the Amarnath cave shrine,” IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra told Press Trust of India.
At least 16 people were killed and community living spaces near the cave shrine were swamped with mud and rocks that came tumbling down with a downpour of water after a heavy rain spell on Friday evening.
Weather scientists said it was very difficult to predict cloudbursts due to their very small scale in space and time. The region above the Amarnath cave shrine received 28 mm of rainfall between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm, a scientist from the IMD said.
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