Extremely heavy rainfall likely in several districts of Uttarakhand

New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department issued a red alert warning for Uttarakhand’s Dharali, saying it had recorded “extremely heavy” rainfall of around 21 centimetres.

The weather agency in its latest bulliten warned that the state will witness heavy rainfall till 9th August.

“Today it has issued a warning for 5th August for the state due to expected heavy to extremely heavy rainfall and the impact expected due to rainfall. Isolated heavy rainfall is likely over Uttarakhand during 6th to 9th August 2025” IMD said.

According to the IMD in the last three days, none of the stations recorded 10 CM rain, in Uttarkashi. Even today, the highest rainfall recorded is 4.3 CM at Sankri that too in a duration of 8 hours.

(Note- For the cloudburst, at least 100 mm (10 CM) of rain is required at any station in one one-hour duration)

At least four people have died and several more are missing after a cloudburst triggered flash floods in the Dharali area of Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand on Tuesday.

The torrent swept away houses, hotels and homestays in the village, which lies along the route to the Gangotri pilgrimage site.

According to local officials, numerous buildings have been damaged or completely washed away.
A villager confirmed that as many as 20 to 25 hotels and guesthouses may have been lost.

Deadly floods and landslides are common during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change, coupled with urbanisation, is increasing their frequency and severity.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said last year that increasingly intense floods and droughts are a “distress signal” of what is to come as climate change makes the planet’s water cycle ever more unpredictable.