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Chamoli Disaster 2021, Uttarakhand: A study on the role of a hidden meteorological parameter

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Abstract

The Chamoli district of the Himalayan state Uttarakhand experienced a glacier breakage leading to a devastating flash flood on 07 Feb 2021. The event claimed several lives and also destroyed the hydropower projects in the Rishiganga and Dhauliganga valleys. The initiation of strong wind gusts on 6th and 7th Feb 2021 and specifically 12 hours before the disaster (42, 45, and 41 km/hr) demonstrates the wind’s ongoing impact on the accumulated snow/glacier. It seems a significant contribution that might have resulted in the heat energy responsible for the breaking of the glacier leading to this disaster. Moreover, the analysis of thermal variability of land surface temperature (LST) shows the sudden change in the terrain during the disaster. It shows relatively lower temperature before the event due to snowfall over the study area on 5 Feb 2021 in comparison to that after the event.

Research Highlights

  1. 1.

    The present study analyzes the hidden meteorological factor contributing to the glacier breakage which resulted in devastating flash flood in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, on 07 February 2021.

  2. 2.

    The missing parameter namely wind is validated using the observed values with the model computed values through data analysis.

  3. 3.

    The Land Surface Temperature is calculated as an additional information to compare the pre and post disaster characteristics of the land confirming the presence of weak layer before the disaster.

  4. 4.

    The presence of continuous wind gust in the narrow valley acted as a potential factor towards the disaster.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Director, Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE), Chandigarh and NCMRWF for providing the necessary observatory and model data for our study. Online data sources are also duly acknowledged for providing data for detailed investigation of our work on the study area.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE), DRDO, Plot-1, Him Parisar, Sector 37A, Chandigarh, 160 036, India

    Sujata Dash, M S Shekhar, Pranshu Bhardwaj & P K Satyawali

  2. CSIR-Central Scientific Instrument Organisation, Chandigarh, 160 030, India

    Pranshu Bhardwaj

  3. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201 002, India

    Pranshu Bhardwaj

  4. Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneswar 752 050, Odisha, India

    Madhusmita Swain & U C Mohanty

  5. Atmospheric Science Research Center, University at Albany, SUNY, New York, 12203, USA

    Madhusmita Swain

Authors
  1. Sujata Dash
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  2. M S Shekhar
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  3. Pranshu Bhardwaj
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  4. Madhusmita Swain
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  5. P K Satyawali
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  6. U C Mohanty
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Contributions

Sujata Dash: Conceptualization, supervision, writing – original draft preparation, reviewing and editing, software, methodology. M S Shekhar: Data curation, investigation, validation, writing – reviewing and editing. Pranshu Bhardwaj: Software, data curation, methodology, visualization, writing – reviewing and editing. Madhusmita Swain: Software, data curation, visualization, writing – reviewing and editing. P K Satyawali: Methodology, validation, writing – reviewing and editing. U C Mohanty: Supervision, writing – reviewing and editing, visualization.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M S Shekhar.

Additional information

Communicated by Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay

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Dash, S., Shekhar, M.S., Bhardwaj, P. et al. Chamoli Disaster 2021, Uttarakhand: A study on the role of a hidden meteorological parameter. J Earth Syst Sci 132, 193 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-023-02207-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-023-02207-w

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