• Met Office insists recent heavy rains in northern areas do not qualify as ‘cloudburst’
• PDMA official says terminology used to describe deluge causing widespread destruction in limited time
AS EXTREME weather events grow more frequent and intense in Pakistan, a troubling gap has emerged not just in the country’s response to these phenomena, but also in terms of institutional coordination and data credibility.
The recent catastrophic flooding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was attributed to a cloudburst by the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), has once again laid bare the disconnect between government agencies, as the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) quickly refuted the claim, asserting that no such meteorological phenomenon had occurred.
Although the declaration of a ‘cloudburst’ has made headlines — both at home and abroad — it seems to be a case of a convenient label being slapped on a tragic incident.
Weather experts have challenged the perception and the frequent use of the term ‘cloudburst’ by state institutions and the media.
PMD Director Dr Zaheer Ahmed Babar said that technically speaking, there had been no cloudburst incidents in the country, and attributed the widespread destruction in the country’s northern parts to heavy rains.
Definition of ‘cloudburst’
“In meteorology, a cloudburst [refers to] an enormous amount of precipitation in a short period of time in small area — more than 100 millimetres of rain in an hour that is sometimes accompanied by hail and thunder — which is capable of creating flood-like conditions,” he said.
According to the Associated Press, a cloudburst is usually characterised by more than 100mm of precipitation within an hour over a localized area of around 30 sq km.
“We can use the word cloudburst as a descriptive noun, but it is not fit to [describe] heavy rainfall. We have to look at multiple factors to judge whether an incident was simply heavy rain or a cloudburst,” he said.
He gave the example of heavy rain in Chakwal last month, when a cloudburst was held responsible for the widespread destruction.
However, when the Met Office checked the record of observatories in Chakwal, they found that less rain was recorded than had been reported in the media, and said that the use of the term ‘cloudburst’ was incorrect in that context.
At the time, it was PDMA Punjab that had termed the incident a ‘cloudburst’ based on their own readings. However, they subsequently acknowledged the error after the Met Office issued a clarification.
“The same problem occurred in India and other countries, which are using the term to refer to heavy and extreme rainfall,” Mr Babar said.
Meanwhile, PMD Deputy Director Anjum Nazir Zaigham also clarified to different news channels on Monday that the recent bout of flooding was the result of rising temperatures causing glacier melt, and river overflows.
However, a senior PDMA KP official defended terming the rains over Buner and other areas as a ‘cloudburst’ incident.
He argued that the areas which faced catastrophic floods neither had glaciers nor rivers. “Whatever happened took place in short span of time. It took between five to 10 minutes for massive boulders to come hurtling down the mountains,” the official said.
The PDMA official said that these areas had small perennial streams, which carried the floodwaters down to settled areas. Normal rains do not cause such massive floods, nor do they result in such catastrophic losses, he reasoned.
He also quoted locals and eyewitnesses as saying that the intense deluge caused flooding within minutes, which could not happen unless there was a massive downpour in a short span of time, and justified his department’s use of the ‘cloudburst’ term.
Gaps in disaster readiness
Experts warn that these discrepancies are not just bureaucratic squabbles — they reflect serious gaps in Pakistan’s climate readiness.
Former climate change minister Sherry Rehman told Dawn it was disconcerting to see the PMD and PDMAs squabbling over “what constitutes a cloudburst and what does not”, especially when one-third of the country is coping with the aftermath of a disaster.
The Met Department, she said, needed to coordinate with NDMA to express their predictions and plans with clarity, instead of creating confusion.
“These are no longer normal monsoons. That we can all see. It is important to coordinate responses for the public instead of working in unproductive silos,” she added.
Another critical weakness is the country’s lack of “instant observation” capabilities. In the words of former chief meteorologist, Dr Sardar Sarfaraz, data is the key to tackling climate change.
“Without the ability to monitor weather events in real time, we’re essentially blind to the threats forming over our heads,” he said.
He explained that Pakistan currently operates around 85 automatic weather stations and roughly 110 manual observatories across its vast territory of over 700,000 square kilometers.
“And according to international standards, there should be a weather observation point every 100km. The gaps in our observation network are substantial, and they must be addressed urgently. In the era of increasingly extreme weather, we can no longer afford to remain behind. Our capacity needs to grow—and fast,” he concluded.
Manzoor Ali in Peshawar also contributed to this report
Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2025
