Even as the world鈥檚 attention was focused on the floods in Pakistan, a rare and extreme cloudburst devastated the Himalayan town of Leh in Ladakh, India 鈥� normally one of the driest regions on Earth.
Heavy rainfall is common elsewhere in the Himalayas, but not in Ladakh. The region lies in the rain shadow of the high mountains, making it a cold, high-altitude desert. According to the , Ladakh receives an average of about 15聽millimetres of rain during August.
But between 1.30 and 2聽am on 6聽August, a cloudburst hit Leh. It led to flash floods and mudslides, washing away houses that weren鈥檛 built to withstand such rainfall. More than 150 people have died and hundreds more are missing.
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The rainstorm was so focussed that it missed a nearby weather station, so the total rainfall is not known.
Climate to blame?
Climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict that the number of extreme events such as cloudbursts will increase with rising global temperature, says climate scientist of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.
But he adds that there is not enough evidence to pin the Leh cloudburst on global warming. 鈥淭he problem with mountainous areas is that we don鈥檛 have sufficient data,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e only know from hearsay that the number of extreme events has increased over the past few years.鈥�
