Monsoon to hit Bengaluru by next week, predicts MeT department
The MeT department has predicted that monsoon will hit Bengaluru not before next week. However, the city has got nothing to complain as it had been receiving on-and-off rains throughout May, with a few dry days intermittently, but the weather remained pleasant overall for the month. The department added the rains in May were pre-monsoon showers brought over by cyclonic formation over Southeast Arabian Sea.
Monsoon has reached coastal Karnataka, might hit city tomorrow: Skymet
Skymet, however, said the Southwest monsoon has already touched down coastal Karnataka and has progressed into interiors of the state. Given that, Bengaluru and South Interior Karnataka, which includes Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar and Kodagu, are likely to receive the monsoon rains by tomorrow. Meanwhile, the state Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre has predicted moderate to heavy rains, along with thunderstorms and gusty winds for today.
Bengaluru has already crossed usual monthly mean in May
Till 9PM yesterday, Bengaluru had received 40mm of rain. In fact, it has already surpassed the usual monthly mean of 107.4mm, by recording rains at 240.2mm for May. Though the weather became pleasant, it did come with a lot of civic issues, like water-logging, traffic jams and tree felling incidents. BBMP control room was flooded with complaints from areas like Koramangala, Mahadevpura, Malleswaram, etc.
Last month, heavy rains threw life out of gear
Towards the end of last month, normal life was thrown out of gear when pre-monsoon heavy rains hit low-lying areas of coastal parts of Karnataka, namely Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. Traffic services remained affected in flooded streets of Mangalore and other cities. One casualty was reported. The heavy rains stopped the flood water from flowing into the nearby Arabian Sea, worsening matters.
Measures taken by the state, Centre to contain damage
Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy took a stock of the situation and directed the district administrations to take Coastal Guard's help to prevent loss of lives. The authorities have set up five rehabilitation centres. Further, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had ordered the deployment of additional teams of National Disaster Response Force. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet had promised all possible assistance.
