Cloudburst

Definition and stakes

Various,  Popular Science Monthly (1890)

“ Thus, if a tornado heavily charged with rain, in moving over the country, strikes a mountainside, its whirling motion is checked and the upward current weakened, when a cloudburst results. This is why cloud-bursts occur oftenest on mountain-sides. It is not to be supposed that the accumulation of water would be evenly distributed over all parts of the ascending current, but it would collect at several points; hence, when it becomes able to force its way down, it descends not in drops, but in streams which often make great holes in the ground. ”
Source: Wikisource

Edward Sylvester Ellis,  Deerfoot on the Prairies

“ The destructive cloudbursts that sometimes break with cyclonic suddenness in the West are as short-lived as they are violent. It is impossible that it should be otherwise, for they consist simply of a sudden precipitation or fall of an enormous mass of water from the skies, which naturally hunts with the utmost swiftness for the lowest level. ”
Source: Gutenberg

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