Weather Department caught off guard

A strong squall, with a wind speed of over 100 km per hour at some places, lashed Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday night, causing significant damage to property and crops in several areas. The squall was intense but the weather department had not issued a forecast about it. The department though issued an alert a couple of hours before the squall occurred.

A senior MeT department official admitted that they could not issue an alert a day before the squall hit the state, as it happened due to an unforeseen weather event in and around Mandi district. “An unexpected formation of convection clouds in and around Mandi district and its merger with the cloud system coming from the Pakistan-Jammu-Chamba-Kangra side resulted into the formation of a squall line of 209 km. When the squall line is formed, the speed of winds rise significantly and the area falling in its way is affected,” the official added.

He said that the cloud movement from Pakistan to Jammu, Chamba and Kangra was on the expected lines and the department had already issued a yellow alert for thunderstorms in Chamba, Kangra and Kullu. “We had expected a light weather activity in these districts. As we had expected, the activity was dissipating as the clouds left Kangra,” he added.

The unexpected localised formation of convection clouds and its merger with the clouds coming from the Chamba-Kangra side triggered an intense squall that swept into several districts, including Shimla and Bilaspur. “We could not issue a forecast for the squall line one or two days before it happened because none of the models and satellites provided any indication of its formation over Himachal. Even our thermodynamical and dynamical analysis did not provide any such indication,” he added.

The official said that the squall of such intensity and the area it affected was rare in the hills. “Such events are common in West Bengal and its adjacent states during the pre-monsoon period but these are rare in the hilly areas of northwest India. It will take a detailed study to understand why such an event happened,” he added.

Himachal Tribune