Cloudbursts a sign of climate change in cold desert

Experts: W Himalayas Warming Up Faster Than Subcontinent

New Delhi: The two cloudbursts that lashed the Leh area of Ladakh with unprecedented fury on Thursday and Friday, could be another sign that rising temperatures in the cold desert were leading to climate change, experts said.
    The western Himalayan region is warming faster than the rest of the subcontinent. A recent analysis of temperature trends in the country since 1901 done by scientists at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, found that maximum temperatures in the region were rising at an alarming rate of 0.53°C.
    Dr M P Sah of the Dehradun-based Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology said warming in the region was a plausible explanation for the rising incidents of cloudbursts. "Cloudbursts in this cold desert are a recent phenomenon. We see a rising trend of cloudbursts since the late 1990s. These weather events aren't expected in this dry and cold region."
    Sah added that rainfall too was increasing in Ladakh. "This ties in with the warming trend in the region. As Ladakh warms, there is more evaporation from the soil, leading to a rise in relative humidity. With increased water holding capacity of the air, the possibility of strong local convection currents leading to heavy rain increases." The geomorphologist cautioned that this was a hypothesis that explained the phenomenon but specific research needed to be conducted.
ITBP will soon open Manali-Leh highway
    Hopes of an early opening of the Manali-Leh highway for at least supply trucks brightened on Saturday as the ITBP managed to clear enough way from some of the highway's offshoots for heavy trucks. The movement of 5-tonner trucks have sped up relief and rescue work. Sources in Leh said water has started gushing along the route taken by the debris. "This is a good sign. It means there is no more rubble or mud," a source said.