Coastal and southern Karnataka and the Malnad regions received heavy rainfall on Thursday.
Parts of Udupi saw as much as 127mm of rainfall. With over 65mm of rain till Thursday evening, Bengaluru city witnessed its wettest October in more than a decade.
Rain-bearing clouds left chaos in its wake as it moved from south of the city towards the north. While meteorologists had predicted moderate rainfall owing to clouds emerging from the Bay of Bengal and moving westward, the rainfall received overshot the forecast by a big margin.
According to the India Meteorological Department, their monitoring centre on Palace Road recorded 65mm of rainfall (till 5.30 p.m.), much of it coming in a span of an hour in the afternoon. Not only does it become the highest in over a decade (in 2014, the city received 63.1mm in 24 hours), but Bengaluru has seen 130mm of rain, or nearly 75% of the monthly “normal” rainfall in less than five days. Within the city, the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) notes that Bommanahalli recorded 75.50mm of rainfall till 6.30 p.m. Rain, as well as the celestial displays of thunder and lightning, is expected to continue for the next 48 hours at least.
Weather forecast
“We expect good thunderstorm activity in south-interior Karnataka for the next few days. In fact, as the withdrawal of the monsoons has been delayed by 10 days in north India, we expect the monsoons to last till third week of October at least,” said G.S. Srinivasa Reddy, Director, KSNDMC.