Very heavy rainfall warning issued for Karnataka until Sunday

The weatherman on Wednesday issued a warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall for the next five days across Karnataka.

To ensure people are not hassled, as noticed in Mangaluru recently and in Bengaluru last year, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has sent letters of warning to the offices of chief minister, chief secretary and deputy commissioners.

The warning is up to June 10, Sunder M Metri, director-in-charge, IMD, Bengaluru, told reporters.

A special warning of extremely heavy rainfall has been issued for June 8. This is the first warning the IMD has issued after the southwest monsoon hit most parts of the state. On June 3, the IMD had issued a heavy rainfall warning. The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Cell had issued a flood alert for Bengaluru and the surrounding areas.

Metri said the latest warning was issued because of the advancement of monsoon and changes in weather under the influence of various systems. There was an offshore trough at mean sea level from the south Maharashtra coast to the north Kerala coast extending up to 0.9 km above the mean sea level. A low-pressure area is also likely to develop over north Bay of Bengal on June 8, he said.

The IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places for coastal, south and north interior Karnataka on June 7. This will be accompanied by thunderstorm, gusty winds and lightning.

For June 8, the IMD has forecast very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall across coastal and interior Karnataka. For June 9 and 10, the IMD has forecast very heavy rainfall in isolated places across Karnataka.

Bengaluru and the surrounding areas of south interior Karnataka will receive light to moderate monsoon showers as it is a rain shadow area. An isolated heavy rainfall warning has been issued for Bengaluru for five days.