The heavy rainfall in North India was caused by the same phenomenon that caused the Kedarnath cloudburst in 2013…
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00:00These logs were swept away in a flash flood in Himachal Pradesh
00:04This is a water canal in Kullu
00:07And this is a busy road in Gurugram
00:09Nearly 40 people have died in just 2 days of torrential downpour
00:14and flood-like situations in Northern India
00:22But what's going on?
00:23Is this just the monsoon coming in heavier than usual?
00:27Turns out, no
00:28The kind of rainfall North India experienced in early July 2023
00:33is a rare phenomena
00:35It's the interaction between the monsoon and the western disturbance
00:40So what exactly is the western disturbance?
00:43It is essentially a storm that forms over the Mediterranean
00:47But it is a low-pressure system which travels east
00:50through the Middle East and Iran
00:52The water level is so high that the entire body is wet
00:57Western disturbances are quite frequent
00:59and substantially affect the weather in North India
01:02They cause cloud cover, rainfall and even snowfall
01:06in the higher regions of the Himalayas
01:13The monsoons, on the other hand, are seasonal wind patterns
01:17across the Indian subcontinent that bring about the monsoon season
01:21when these two weather systems interacted with each other
01:25It led to heavy rainfall, with Delhi recording
01:29the highest single-day rainfall in July since 1982
01:41The IMD chief, Mrityunjay Mohapatra, said that the mountains
01:44get a lot of rain during such interactions
01:47because the winds hit the hills and rise, causing heavy precipitation
01:51A similar interaction happened in June of 2013 as well
01:55and it was one of the factors responsible for the floods in Uttarakhand
01:59and the cloudburst in Kedarnath
02:01It killed over 6,000 people
02:04The heavy rainfall in 2023 over states like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Delhi
02:10subsided in about 4 days and the system shifted eastward
02:18While it is difficult to predict whether or not such interactions
02:21will be more frequent in the future
02:23when they do occur, they will bring about heavy rainfall and floods
02:27But that's not all
02:28Scientists are also seeing a shift in the monsoon pattern
02:32There are long periods of rainfall deficit
02:35and short bouts of heavy downpours
02:38Experts said that the capacity to hold moisture in the air
02:41increases with temperature
02:43and global warming has led to higher moisture levels in the air
02:46which in turn will lead to heavier rainfall