Environment & Disaster Management
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has clarified that while there is no rising trend in major cloudbursts, the frequency of “mini cloudbursts” has been increasing in India.
A mini cloudburst refers to a sudden, highly localized and intense rainfall event, where the precipitation is at least 5 cm per hour over a small area of about 20–30 sq km. This makes it less severe than the IMD’s official definition of a cloudburst, which requires 10 cm or more of rain in an hour.
The key features of mini cloudbursts include their short-lived but extremely intense nature, higher frequency compared to full cloudbursts, and their occurrence in localized areas, often in hilly or remote regions. Prediction remains a major challenge, as only real-time nowcasting of heavy clouding or rainfall is possible.
Due to inadequate ground monitoring stations and the limited precision of satellite imagery, many mini cloudbursts remain unrecorded. Their growing frequency poses challenges for disaster preparedness, especially in vulnerable mountainous terrains.
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