James Clark; age 11 of Albany, N. Y.

Does a cloud really burst to make a cloud burst?

Chances are, you will never see a cloudburst. Lucky for us, they are very rare, A genuine cloudburst never covers more than a small area when they do happen, they are very fierce, To people below it seems that a cloud has burst open like a huge bag of water, Actually, this is not so. A cloudburst is freak of rain, wind and weather

It begins as an ordinary rain cloud. Conditions are right to gel the cloudy moisture is ready to fall and they start tumblin the air is hot and it expands and the updraft  from ground  air masses lift a cloud.  The moisture in the cloud condenses forming large raindrops which combine with small rain droplets which are then released from the cloudl

Then a freakish thing may happen  draft from below stops, The current of rising air weakens and dies now nothing to keep the loads and loads of raindrops aloft in the cloud. The prop has been removed from piles of waiting raindrops, Down they tumble all at once, Those that were made an hour ago crash down with the newest batch gelled from the misty cloud.

Torrents of water pelt the earth in sheets. The ground is deluged in minutes, Luckily such torrents do not last long. The cloud is soon rid of its reservoir of raindrops,. If rain follows the deluge, it is normal, gentle rain. The drops fall as they gel a few at a time.

The weatherman rates both 4 inch in 5 minutes and 1 inch an hour as excessive rainfalld' The air above cannot hold more than one inch of rain at a time. A cloudburst can unload that much in a few minutes. That is fierce enough when you remember that is 113 tons of water over an acre;

Sometimes a flash storm is called a cloudburst though not rightly so A thunderstorm breaks in the mountains and the rainwater gushes with sudden deluge. Dry river beds and old gullies gurgle with the runoff, The runoff may gather from a wide area in the hills. A true cloudburst deluges only over a small area,