Cloudbursts Are Swallowing Villages in South Asia

Mud and boulders the size of cars crashed through Salarzai village in Pakistan last week. The ground shook like an earthquake, but it wasn't. It was water—impossible amounts of water falling from the sky all at once.

In 48 hours, these flash floods killed 321 people across northwest Pakistan. Ten villages in Buner got wiped off the map. Over in Kashmir, 60 people died when a wall of mud hit Chashoti. Another surge killed four in India's Uttarakhand state.

They're calling these cloudbursts. Fancy word for when the sky basically opens up and dumps everything at once.

When Four Inches Falls in One Hour

Here's what a cloudburst actually is: over four inches of rain per hour in one spot. Not spread out nice and even. Just dumped right there, turning streams into monsters and dirt into liquid death.