Impact of Air Quality & Environmental Pollution on Cloud Burst Events

Cloud bursts—intense, short-duration precipitation—are becoming more frequent in orographic and fast-urbanizing areas. Cloud burst Cloud's precipitous rain: intense — and, short-duration rainfall over a small area, derived from precipitation terminology. Cloud burst is largely a meteorological phenomenon, but the recent studies show that air quality and various environmental pollution like aerosol, PM (Particulate Matter) and GHGs also hold significant influence towards modifying cloud microphysics, rainfall intensity and its distribution. In this paper, we investigate how cloud microphysics, atmospheric stability, and precipitation efficiency are modified by air quality and environmental pollution changing the occurrence frequency of cloud-burst(-like) episodes. We combine conceptual mechanisms, multi-regional data (2005–2024) and case-study comparisons to show that statistically robust links between aerosol loadings (PM2. 5)/(PM, PM10, black carbon and AOD and precipitation extremes. This article focuses on the effect of anthropogenic pollution on occurrence and intensity of cloud burst. In general, this study contributes to enhancing our knowledge on the air quality impacts on Cloud bursts and could help in developing the improvement of weather and climate models for a better prediction of Cloud burst. We suggest a policy-and-technology model that integrates emissions reduction, urban heat abatement, hydrological buffering and AI-led early warnings.

Cloud bursts, Air quality, Environmental pollution, Black carbon, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD).

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