A case study of an extreme flooding episode in Charikar, Eastern Afghanistan

Abstract

Abstract This work investigates the meteorological mechanisms forming a classical frontal system on 26 August 2020 in the northeast and eastern parts of Afghanistan. The weather system caused heavy rainfall and led to severe flash floods. Flooding, affected by torrential rain showers, struck mostly the city of Charikar in Parvan province early in the morning day, while most people were asleep. This caused 150 deaths, and nearly 500 houses were destroyed. This research explores atmospheric processes by examining the National Centers for Environmental Prediction dataset and MERRA Model database. The calculation of the convective available potential energy (CAPE) and Showalter index extracted from the Skew-T log-pressure diagram shows a high value of the CAPE at around 2,632 J/kg and −6.6 for the Showalter index, respectively. This presents a very extreme instability in the study area during the time of the flood. The study reveals that the triggering of this system was mostly by thermodynamical aspects, low-level deep convergence, and local topographical aspects rather than the PV streamer. However, the anomaly climate analysis for different atmospheric elements with a comparison of the climate normal values shows the importance of climate change in the weather system into a stronger frontal activity associated with stronger baroclinicity over the study area.