Flash flooding and landslides beginning with torrential rains in Jammu and Kashmir have brought the Himalayas of India to a spotlight on extreme weather events during this monsoon season, a trend that tracks with extreme weather events in the form of global temperature.
The incident in Jammu and Kashmir comes behind another deadly flood on August 5, when suspected glacier collapse triggered flash floods in Dharli area of Uttarakhand. The extreme monsoon rains and flash floods also killed Kullu, Shimla, Lahaul and Speesy this week, a pattern to increase disasters in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Several colleagues published since 2017 have documented the growing frequency of cloudbers and flash floods in the Western Himalayas. Experts have credited the rising temperature that enhances the atmosphere’s ability to catch the water, leading to more intense rainfall incidences, mixed by unplanned constructions in weak areas.
Physics is straight behind the increasing intensity, according to Anil Kulkarni, scientist visiting scientist at De Veda Center for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science.
“High temperature increases air water capacity,” Kulkarni explained. “The mountainous regions are attached to the movement upwards of the air mass due to high slope. As the atmospheric moisture is moved upwards, it increases the size of water drops, meanwhile, added excess moisture to a lower height. It increases the moisture in the air column. It leads to the cloudburst.”
Research data supports this mechanism. A study published in July at the Journal of Geological Society of India “Uttarakhand: A Hotspot for Extreme Events?” After 2010, a remarkable increase in extreme events in Uttarakhand was documented, especially during the monsoon season.
Research led by Yashpal Sundaril of Hemwati Nandan Bahugun Garhwal University analyzed four decades observations from 1982 to 2020, including rain, surface radiation temperature, surface runoff and telecom indices. The study examined the relationship between climate change and global telecon, including the North Atlantic oscillation and El Nino-South oscillation. In particular, the annual temperature increased in the period of 1998–2009 and a decrease in rainfall and surface runoff.
A 2025 study published in Springer Nature titled “A review of cloudburst events in the Himalayan region, and 2D hydrodynamic simulation using the mic model, found that cloudbers have been found to have increased in the 1970 to 2024 analysis in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Uttarakhand emerged as the most affected area, Himachal Pradesh had frequent incidents and Jammu and Kashmir showed growing trends. The study of July concluded,
The growing pattern manufactured dominated disasters, such as Claudbsts killed 19 people in Arkot region of Uttarkashi on August 18, 2019, while 70 square kilometers affected 38 villages and implicated more than 400 people. Heavy rains led to heavy flash floods in Arkot Nala and inspired a major landslide, destroying the villages of Tikochi and Maqudi.
The retreating glaciers to retreat from climate change leads to risk. The Indian Institute of Science suspects that the “Hanging Glacier”, who fed the Kheer Ganga channel, contributed to the Dharli flood on August 5, while the National Disaster Management Authority’s initial analysis indicated that the glacier collapse has triggered the disaster, HT stated last week.
The Divecha Center has identified 219 hanging glaciers in Alakanand and Bhagirathi basins as part of the ongoing landpasses in Uttarakhand. Most glaciers are recurrence due to global warming, causing them to exposure to various disasters and collapse.
Use of poor land increases the destruction when extreme weather attacks, experts warning.
Manish Shrestha, a hydrologist at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, said, “This type of rainfall incidents are rare and once in 20 or 50 years. However, nowadays such incidents are continuously happening due to climate change.” “Such mudslides usually occur when very heavy rains occur.”
Referring to the Dharli disaster, Shrestha noted dense settlements near the banks of the river, which falls “on the way to the river”. “We must have a safe area for buildings, hotels and settlements. Zonation is important in such areas,” he said.
The unique topography of the Western Himalayas produces maturity for extreme weather events. In the Science and Technology with a 2024 paper published in the National Library of Medicine, Center for Remote Sensing and Geoenformatics, in Science and Technology, investigated the Nanital region of Uttarakhand and investigated co-orders among pre-flood parameters including total aerosol optical depth, cloud cover and water returns.
The study stated, “The Himalayan region, which is characterized by its sufficient topographic scale and height, displays vulnerability to glitter floods and landslides inspired by natural and anthropological effects,” the study has said.
Scientists have repeatedly called for widespread disaster preparations measures to address the increasing threat.
The study of the 2022 Geological Society of India, titled: A investigation into “Cludbst-Trigger landslides and flash floods in” Arakot Area of Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand “recommended” prehmatic check dam policy and logical shifting “.
Researchers at the Vadia Institute of Himalayan Geology noted such measures, including early warning systems, Doppler radar installations and lightening sensors, “will be helpful to policy makers, planners, physicians and technologists to assist sustainable development within the field.
There is a pattern contradiction with the neighboring Nepal, where the 2024 study of the 1971–2015 data found that extreme daily rainfall declined overall, with wet and eastern regions in the western mountains to dry up after 2003.
