Mysuru, Bengaluru and Kodagu receive heavy rain catching people off-guard

Mysore/Mysuru: Even though the monsoon has failed this year pushing the State towards drought, the sudden rain disrupted normal life in Mysuru, Bengaluru, Kodagu and several other regions of the State yesterday.

The monsoon season usually begins in the month of June and ends in September, but this time it had a delayed start at the fag end of June. But the rainfall was below normal forecast, leaving the water bodies including lakes and tanks dried, bringing down the water levels at dams. However, even as the monsoon season is over, the parts of the State have witnessed unseasonal rain, which the weather experts call as ‘Monsoon Withdrawal’.

The people, especially vehicle riders who were caught off-guard due to sudden downpour, had to struggle wading through water-logged roads. Southern Kodagu, which was witnessing drizzle for the past three days, received the rain in Virajpet and Napoklu parts. As the weekly shandy is organised on every Monday at Napoklu, the traders and customers alike, who were unprepared for the rain, had to struggle a while to protect themselves from getting drenched.

It also rained heavily at Murnad, Kottamudi, Kondangeri too, with rain water flooding the roads. The rain, accompanied by huge cloud bursts, lasted for two hours, with the weatherman predicting 1 mm rainfall in the day. On the other hand, Harangi Dam saw an increase in the inflow of water. “Whenever there is a surge in temperature at Indian Ocean, the clouds form and move towards India, in the form of a wind with heavy velocity, causing heavy rain in those parts of the country. However this time, as the rise in temperature level was witnessed at Pacific Ocean, the rainy clouds moved towards Australia and other countries. While those regions witnessed a good spell of rain, several States including Karnataka in our country had to reel under drought,” said Dr. Sumanth Kumar, Assistant Researcher, Field Division, Naganahalli Organic Farming Research Station, Mysuru.

“The monsoon season is expected to be a failure next year too, with no weather report on pre-monsoon rain received from the central office yet,” said Dr. Sumanth quoting weather experts.