Appraisal of hydro-meteorological factors during extreme precipitation event: case study of Kedarnath cloudburst, Uttarakhand, India

Flash flood is an uncertain and most catastrophic disaster worldwide that causes socio-economic problems, devastation and loss of infrastructure. One of the major triggering factors of flash floods is the extreme events like cloudburst that causes flooding of area within a short span of time. Therefore, this study aims to understand the variations in hydro-meteorological variables during the devastating Kedarnath cloudburst in the Uttarakhand, India. The hydro-meteorological variables were collected from the global satellites such as Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, modelled datasets from Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer and National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). For the validation of satellite meteorological data, the NCEP Global analysis data were downscaled using Weather Research and Forecasting model over the study area to achieve the meteorological variables’ information. The meteorological factors such as atmospheric pressure, atmospheric temperature, rainfall, cloud water content, cloud fraction, cloud particle radius, cloud mixing ratio, total cloud cover, wind speed, wind direction and relative humidity were studied during the cloudburst, before as well as after the event. The outcomes of this study indicate that the variability in hydro-meteorological variables over the Kedarnath had played a significant role in triggering the cloudburst in the area. The results showed that during the cloudburst, the relative humidity was at the maximum level, the temperature was very low, the wind speed was slow and the total cloud cover was found at the maximum level. It is expected that because of this situation a high amount of clouds may get condensed at a very rapid rate and resulted in a cloudburst over the Kedarnath region.