Monsoon rains pile misery

Of late, Pakistan has witnessed a rise in cloudburst events, with environmentalists blaming it on climate change. Raza said summer temperatures have spiked in mountainous areas, reaching up to 46 C. This leads to more rainfall as warm air rises and causes condensation, precipitation and changes in snowmelt patterns.

"And the Himalayas, Hindu Kush and Karakoram mountain ranges are particularly susceptible to these weather patterns — the impact of which can be seen in towns and villages on or near these mountains," he said.

For example, Gilgit saw one of its worst flooding events this year, with eight out of 10 villages in the region inundated with floods. Buner, which does not have any rivers flowing through, witnessed a similar situation, with the rains causing unprecedented damage this year.

"Floods are not uncommon, but their frequency and intensity have now increased … climate events that were to take place every 50 to 70 years are now occurring within just a decade or less," Raza warned.

Similarly, rainfall patterns have also changed. Normally, monsoon rains in northern areas begin from mid-July and stay until mid-August. But these periods have changed now. Now winter rains extend into spring while the monsoon season continues till September.

"Normally, rainy days are distributed across the year … in some places they last for 50 days, in others they can go up to 100 days," said Muhammad Rafiq, a climate finance and sustainable development expert who has worked with the United Nations Development Programme and WWF. "But now, we see more rainfall in shorter periods, which is difficult to manage."

These factors, however, are "uncontrollable" because of their unpredictability, Rafiq said. You cannot really do anything about it besides prepare for the worst. But underneath these fatal climate events are also factors that are controllable and in human hands: deforestation and land use.