Hydrogeography of Cloudburst Flooding in the Himalaya

Even though cloudburst events in high mountain areas can be highly destructive and result in significant losses of life, little is known definitively about these flood events. An exact\ud understanding of the driving processes, typical precipitation rates, and impacts of cloudburst events remain uncertain. This study seeks to advance knowledge on the hydrology, spatial aspects, and impacts of cloudburst events through compiling a list of reported cloudburst events, investigating five case studies of cloudburst events to identify trends, and providing direction for future research. Information was collected from news articles, publications, government records, and remotely-sensed data. Major similarities across the five assessed events included occurrence during the monsoon and at night, impacted villages at elevations between 1600 and 2100 meters, lack of rainfall signatures in remotely-sensed precipitation data, occurrence of landslides with cloudburst events, catchments consisting of a majority of landslide hazard slopes, village access blockades, migrant workers as a large fatality group, and damages to hydropower. Further study on cloudburst events within larger atmospheric-landscape processes and the underlying hydrology would be helpful to plan for and respond to the flood hazards resulting from these events