At least 13 yatris were killed, five others injured and around three dozen missing after a supposed cloudburst near the Amarnath cave shrine on Friday evening caused flash floods. The freak weather event reminded people of similar tragedies that have occurred in 2013 and 1996, which also led to the loss of lives.
Experts around the world claim that as global warming shoots up average temperatures across the earth, more such freak weather events may plague humans. Let’s take a look at some of the worst freak weather events around the world:
Kedarnath Yatra in 2013 and Amarnath Tragedy in 1996
A flash flood hit the overflowing banks of Uttarakhand’s Chorabari lake in the early hours of June 16, 2013. It destroyed lives, houses, and everything else in its path as it carried massive amounts of silt and rocks. More than 5,700 people were “presumed dead,” according to figures provided by the Government of Uttarakhand. There were 934 local residents in total. The death toll was later determined to be 6,054. The majority of those who died were pilgrims. And in 1996, approximately 250 pilgrims on their way to the Amarnath cave shrine were killed in a massive storm while trekking through the mountains.
The Halloween Storm That Caused Satellites to Go Out
The Halloween solar storms were a series of solar storms that lasted from mid-October to early November 2003, peaking around October 28-29. This series of storms produced the largest solar flare ever recorded by the GOES system.
A team of researchers led by Thomas Berger at the University of Colorado’s Space Weather Technology, Research, and Education Center report in a 2020 paper titled “Flying Through Uncertainty” that during the Halloween storms, “the majority of [low Earth orbiting] satellites were temporarily lost, necessitating several days of around-the-clock work to reestablish [their positions].”
Sandstorm That Covered a City in China
After a 10-year hiatus, severe sandstorms returned to North China in the spring of 2021, a report by National Science Review stated. The dust source area in Mongolia experienced destructive cooling and warming in early and late winter, causing the land to sag. Due to a lack of precipitation, excessive snow melt, and high evaporation, the soil became dry and the spring vegetation became difficult. On the bare and loose ground, a super-strong Mongolian cyclone formed, easily blowing and transporting large amounts of sand particles into North China.
The sandstorm that rose at least 100 metres (330 feet) covered a city in northwestern China in dust. Dunhuang videos showed a sand wall slowly creeping over buildings and highways.
The Greek Wildfires That are Still Burning
The 2021 Greece wildfires are a series of wildfires that have been burning in Greece since early August 2021, killing three people, injuring at least twenty others, and destroying dozens of homes, following a historic heatwave that reached 47.1 °C. Authorities have ordered the evacuation of several villages and towns.
Greece is experiencing its worst heatwave since 1987, according to BBC News. These are the country’s worst fires since the 2007 Greek forest fires, which burned more than twice as much land (270,000 hectares) as the 2021 fires (125,000 hectares). The most destructive wildfires are in northern Euboea, Attica, Olympia, and Messenia.
2009 Dhaka Cloudburst
Torrential overnight rains in Dhaka set a half-century record in 2009, as the city was half-submerged by morning. Meteorologists said the unusually heavy rain was caused by a phenomenon known as a “cloud outburst,” which caused nearly 300mm of rain to fall in just six hours.
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