What is meant by cloud burst?

Question

What is meant by cloud burst?

Answer 1

A cloudburst is sudden copious rainfall. It is a sudden aggressive rainstorm falling for a short period of time limited to a small geographical area.

Meteorologists say the rain from a cloudburst is usually of the shower type with a fall rate equal to or greater than 100 mm (4.94 inches) per hour.

Generally cloudbursts are associated with thunderstorms. The air currents rushing upwards in a rainstorm hold up a large amount of water.

If these currents suddenly cease, the entire amount of water descends on to a small area with catastrophic force all of a sudden and causes mass destruction. This is due to a rapid condensation of the clouds.

They occur most often in desert and mountainous regions, and in interior regions of continental landmasses.

During a cloudburst, more than 2 cm of rain may fall in a few minutes. They are called 'bursts' probably because it was believed earlier that clouds were solid masses full of water. So, these violent storms were attributed to their bursting.

One of the major disasters from a cloudburst in India occurred in 2002 in Uttaranchal. Some 28 people died when villages like Marwari, Kotsisham, Matgoan and Agonda were hit by sudden cloudbursts.

Cloudbursts frequently occur in Himachal Pradesh during the monsoon

Answer 2

whn a cloud is full of rain and its gonno rain!!!!!! the cloud burst and thts called a cloud burst LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 3

It is rainfall that is sudden and extreme and it is sometimes mixed with hail and thunder.  It only lasts for a few minutes but is can cause minor floods.  The rain from cloudbursts is usually of the shower type.

Answer 4

A sudden, very heavy rain.

Cloudburst Synonyms: deluge, rain, downpour, torrent.

Answer 5

Cloud burst is a sudden violent rainstorm falling for a short period of time limited to a small geographical area.The rain is of the shower type with a fall rate equal to or greater than 100 mm per hour.Cloud bursts are usually associated with thunderstorms.

The air currents rushing upwards in a thunder cloud hold up a large amount of water.If these currents suddenly cease,the entire amount of water descends over a small area with catastrophic force all of a sudden and causes mass destruction.

They occur most often in desert and mountain regions and sometimes in the interior regions of continental land masses.They are called cloud bursts probably because it was believed earlier that clouds were solid masses full of water.

The main reason for the cloud burst is the rapid condensation  of the clouds.

Answer 6

A cloudburst is an extreme form of rainfall, sometimes mixed with hail and thunder, which normally lasts no longer than a few minutes but is capable of creating minor flood conditions.

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Answer 7

They are called 'bursts' probably because it was believed earlier that clouds were solid masses full of water. These violent storms were attributed to their bursting.

There are similar names for such events in other languages. For example, in Polish the equally vague term used is "Oberwanie Chmury".

[edit] Properties

Cloudbursts descend from very high clouds, sometimes with tops above 15 kilometers. Meteorologists say the rain from a cloudburst is usually of the shower type with a fall rate equal to or greater than 100 mm (4.94 inches) per hour.[1]

During a cloudburst, more than 2 cm of rain may fall in a few minutes. When there are instances of cloudbursts, the results can be disastrous.

Rapid precipitation from cumulonimbus clouds is possible due to so called Langmuir precipitation process in which large droplets can grow rapidly by coagulating with smaller droplets which fall down slowly.

[edit] Cloudbursts in the Subcontinent

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.[2]

An example was the sudden cloud burst over the Indian city of Mumbai and other regions of western India, [[2005 Maharashtra floods|which occurred on 26 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.

Cloudbursts frequently occur in Himachal Pradesh during the monsoon. The monsoon rains during July and August put a lot of water into the Himalayan soil.

[edit] World Record Cloudbursts[3]

1 minute: 1.5 inches (38.10 mm) at Barot, Guadeloupe, 26 November 1970.

5 minutes: 2.43 inches (61.72 mm) at Port Bells, Panama, 29 November 1911.

15 minutes: 7.8 inches (198.12 mm) at Plumb Point, Jamaica, 12 May 1916.

20 minutes: 8.1 inches (205.74 mm) at Curtea-de-Arges, Romania, 7 July 1947.

40 minutes: 9.25 inches (234.95 mm) at Guinea, Virginia, USA, 24 August 1906.

[edit] In News

On August 14, 2007, at least 100 people were feared washed away in flash floods caused by cloudburst at a village near Shimla, India.[4]

In July 2007, close to 30,000 people were displaced in Kerala after a cloudburst & flash floods following it.[5]