This is a cloudburst: 100 missing after Uttarakhand flash floods in Dharali
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Fatima Saif
- . August 6, 2025
- . Update: August 6, 2025 11:23 pm
Tragedy struck Uttarakhand on Tuesday as a sudden flash flood hit the Himalayan region, killing at least 4 people and leaving more than 100 others missing. The death toll is likely to rise as rescue operations continue in the affected areas.
This disaster unfolded in Dharali as a fast-paced sludge inundated roads and houses, causing a lot of damage. The Indian Meteorological Department has highlighted that a cloudburst is probably responsible for this situation.
The term ‘cloudburst’ refers to extreme rainfall happening in a short span of time in a concentrated area. This could happen in an area of 30 square kilometres or less and the rainfall needs to happen at a rate of 100 mm or more per hour.
Susceptibility of Himalayas to extreme natural disasters
Cloudbursts are natural phenomena. But climate change could be amplifying their frequency and intensity. The recent Uttarakhand flash floods are a stark reminder of the susceptibility of Himalayan states to extreme natural disasters.
This is not the first time that Uttarakhand has faced such a situation. In June 2013, a catastrophic cloudburst triggered the Kedarnath floods, killing more than 6,000 people, according to a UN report.
The Guardian recently highlighted that a study into the Kedarnath floods found that more than half of the rainfall is possibly linked to the increase in the amount of greenhouse gases and aerosol particles in the atmosphere.
