A multi-tier hazard: Part II—meteorological analysis

In Part I, we have described in detail a multi-tier hazard that occurred in the State of Uttarakhand in India in June 2013. Due to some unusual meteorological situation, a cloud burst happened which was followed by river flooding and this led to significant landslides in the mountainous region. In Part II, we describe the results of an analysis of various meteorological parameters that clearly support the occurrence of this event. The approach we have used is the identification of anomalies in long-term climatic datasets. Anomaly is a pattern in the data that is unusual from the expected behavior. Anomalous events in the global climate system occur relatively infrequently but their consequences can be disastrous. Climate data contain multiple variables (e.g., temperature, pressure, wind speed, humidity, and precipitation). Each variable has its own type of distribution, trend, and seasonal variability. This analysis of identifying anomalies has successfully identified the synoptic situation that led to the multi-tier disaster.