If you’ve been on the internet over the past several days, there’s a good chance you’ve seen news surrounding hundreds of people winding up stranded on the Tibet side of Mount Everest. Some of that news has been a bit conflicting or confusing, making it seem like people were stranded high up on Everest. But this did not occur during peak Everest climbing season. Instead it mostly impacted people hiking the lower trails to mountain base camps and those in nearby villages. Meteorologist Chris Tomer took a look at the event, analyzing what exactly happened from a weather standpoint.
Unprecedented Weather Event
Unlike the typical April and May Everest climbing season, this event struck during a fall trekking period, catching many hikers and villagers off guard. The storm’s origins trace back to a tropical system in the Bay of Bengal, which carried immense moisture northward through India and into Nepal. As this moisture-laden system collided with the Himalayan range, it triggered what Tomer describes as a “big upslope event,” forcing air upward and wringing out catastrophic precipitation.
Snow and Rain
The storm dumped up to 148.2 cm (approximately 4.5 feet) of snow in higher elevations, with some areas potentially seeing even more due to higher snow-to-liquid ratios in the Himalayas. Precipitation totals reached an astonishing 212 millimeters in a single 6-hour period, a figure Tomer notes is “off the charts by a factor of three to four.” Lower elevations faced torrential rains, causing widespread flooding in villages. The atmosphere’s precipitable water content hit a staggering 4.31 inches, surpassing historical norms.
Adding to the chaos, air temperatures plummeted nearly 6°C below normal, lowering the rain-snow line and blanketing trekking routes with heavy snow. This unusual cold snap trapped trekkers and villagers at lower elevations, areas typically spared such intense snowfall this time of year.
Widespread Impact
The storm’s reach extended beyond Everest, affecting other peaks like Cho Oyu, where climbing teams, including one led by Garrett Madison of Madison Mountaineering, were forced to halt operations. Popular trekking circuits, such as those leading to Everest Base Camp, became impassable, leaving hundreds stranded. The rapid onset of the storm, condensed into a 30-hour window, left little room for preparation, amplifying its impact.
This event echoes a similar disaster in 2014, when a tropical system battered the Annapurna region, trapping trekkers in feet of snow. The recurring theme of tropical moisture slamming into the Himalayas underscores the region’s vulnerability to extreme weather, especially during the fall trekking season.
