Kathmandu, April 11

Eleven days after the devastating disaster in Bara and Parsa districts, the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology last evening officially announced that a tornado had caused it.

The DHM informed the tornado had originated from ‘Chitwan National Park’ and this shifted to Bara and Parsa. However, the DHM is yet to prepare a final official document that will define what sort of tornado it was, how long it lasted and how strong it was, officials said.

प्रेष विज्ञप्तिः

वारा र पर्सा जिल्लामा गएको हावाहुरी- टोर्नाडो भएको पुष्टि pic.twitter.com/g6vQgL1JbA

— Nepal Flood Alert! नेपाल बाढी सूचना! (@DHM_FloodEWS) April 11, 2019

The DHM concluded the disaster was caused by a tornado gathering information and data from a team deputed to the disaster-hit area. The DHM, in its preliminary report, had said the disaster was tornado-based on the basis of photographs of the core disaster-hit area before and after the storm. The photographs were taken by the EU’s Sentinel satellite.

Officials said the disaster was caused by a tornado as satellite picture showed that the wind storm had raced up to a stretch of 30 kilometres on the same path without causing any damage to structures that were even slightly away from its path, a tell-tale sign of a tornado.

According to DHM Director General Sarju Kumar Baidya, they studied data received from satellite pictures and compared them with data collected from the field visit. The meteorologists had used drone cameras to capture wider pictures of the area and gather other valuable information. They worked on the field from April 3 to April 9 collecting various data.

Baidya said, “We will soon release a complete report that will probably answer all our queries.” A total of 28 persons were killed and hundreds injured due to the disaster that struck a few rural municipalities in Bara and Parsa at around 7:30pm on March 30.