Monsoon revs up: Heavy rain in Karnataka till July 15

BENGALURU: After a lull in end-June and early July, monsoon has picked up in the state, much to the relief of farmers. The Met office has forecast heavy to extremely heavy rain across the state over the next five days. Thundershowers are likely in Bengaluru in the next 48 hours.
The state received 198mm of rain through June, against a normal of 199mm. The dry spell was between June 18 and July 8. Since then, heavy rain has been lashing coastal and Malnad districts and parts of North Karnataka. From June 1 to July 10, the state received 246mm rain against the normal of 284mm.
Red alert issued in DK, Udupi, Uttara Kannada
The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) has issued a red alert, warning of heavy rain in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts on Sunday. An orange alert was sounded in Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Kodagu and Shivamogga districts and yellow alert in Chamarajanagar, Mandya, Mysuru, Ramanagara, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Bidar, Belagavi, Dharwad, Gadag and Haveri districts.
“The strengthening of south-westerly winds from Arabian Sea and likely formation of a low-pressure area over west central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal will result in active monsoon conditions with enhanced rainfall activity in various parts of the state,” said Manoj Rajan, commissioner, KSNDMC.
He said for the remaining duration of southwest monsoon (till end of September), the state is likely to see normal to above-normal rain.
Dam storage good
The storage at 13 major damsin Karnataka is good. “The total storage is about 332 tmc ft (44%) of the total gross capacity of 860 tmc ft as on Saturday, when compared to 322 tmc ft (38%) of the total capacity last year,’’ said Rajan.