Cloudburst

From Freepedia

A cloudburst is extreme rainfall, sometimes mixed with hail and thunder, which normally lasts no longer than a few minutes but is capable of creating minor flood conditions. Cloudbursts descend from very high clouds, sometimes with tops above 15 kilometers. The monsoon rains during July and August put a lot of water into the Himalayan soil; when there are instances of cloudbursts, the results can be disastrous.

Scientists, and metereologists in particular, are beginning to pay attention to this little understood phenomenon and its potential to cause massive destruction to life and property. However, no one is clear about the scientific cause behind this unpredictable phenomenon.

In the Indian subcontinent, a cloudburst usually occurs when a pregnant monsoon cloud drifts northwards, from the Bay of Bengal or Arabian Sea across the plains, then onto the Himalaya and bursts, bringing rainfall as high as 75 millimeters per hour. An example was the sudden cloud burst over the Indian city of Mumbai and other regions of western India, which occurred on the 26th of July, 2005. Approximately 950mm of rainfall was recorded in Mumbai over a span of eight to ten hours; the deluge completely paralysed India's largest city and financial centre.