19 May 2010

I have no idea what is happening at Attabad now!

Posted by Dave Petley

The situation at Attabad is now completely confused, so apologies for the lack of posts and updates, including to the monitoring site.  For all the right reasons Focus have now stopped collecting their daily data because the site is too dangerous.  The last measurement was before the GLOF, and the actual impact of that event is very unclear.  Meanwhile various news agencies in Pakistan posted suggestions that the lake had risen 10 feet, or even more.

Today NDMA posted their latest update which suggested that the freeboard is still 5.32 metres and that the water level rose just 0.27 m yesterday (as opposed to a rate of 90 cm per day a week ago).  Very strange!  At the same time, the Gilgit-Baltistan Times is reporting that NDMA have said today that overtopping will occur on 22nd May.

Finally, the Pamir Times appears to have stopped posting stories.

So who knows what is going on?  I will post again when I get more information.