Himalayan Cryosphere, Climate and Disaster Research Center (HiCCDRC)

News Bulletin about the flood in the upstream of the Budhigandaki River due to snow avalanche into the Birendra Tal, in Gorkha district

21 April 2024, Sunday: About the news of the flash flood in Samagaun area in the morning of Sunday, 21 April 2024 (9 Baishakh 2081) due to snow valance into the Birendra Tal (area: 0.26 km2), Gorkha district, we have analyzed the available hydrological and satellite data of that area. There are two automatic water level radar stations in the Budhigandaki River at Ghap (2,089 m) and Jagat (1,350 m) installed with the financial support from the Water Resources Research and Development Center (WRRDC), Government of Nepal. The satellite images provided by Planet Labs showed that there was a snow avalanche on 21 April 2024 when compared with the satellite image of 20 April 2024 (dates on the satellite images are of US time zone). From these satellite images we can confirm that the lake did not breach out due to that snow avalanche. Therefore, the flood in the downstream was not due to the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF).

 Figure 1. Planet Labs satellite images of Birendra Tal in Manaslu region, Gorkha (Taken from the Facebook page of Cryospheric Society of Nepal (CSN). 

Full Bulletin: acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:AP:b8564d38-4217-4362-89c4-0e316b8a7f62 

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