Heavy rain in Bengaluru predicted for next two days: ‘Worst not over…’

According to the weather office, the city has recorded 251.4 mm of rain in the last four days.

With Bengaluru grappling with massive flooding in several parts of the city, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday said that the “worst is not over yet”, predicting heavy downpour in India's IT capital for the next two days. The weather office said that "heavy to very heavy rainfall" is likely over a few places in coastal and south interior Karnataka on Thursday and Friday, and interior Karnataka on Friday and Saturday.

A boy pushes a table in a flooded locality of Bellandur after heavy monsoon rains, in Bengaluru. (PTI)

"A cyclonic circulation lies over interior Karnataka and neighbourhood. A trough runs from cyclonic circulation over east-central and adjoining the southeast Bay of Bengal to north Kerala across Rayalaseema and south interior Karnataka," it said, reported news agency PTI.

According to the weather office, the city has recorded 251.4 mm of rain in the last four days. The city witnessed 131.6 mm of rainfall on Sunday, the highest 24-hour precipitation in September in 34 years. Further, between September 1 and September 7 (Wednesday), Bengaluru Rural gauged 752.3 mm of rainfall against a normal of 303.5 mm - an excess of 148 percent, while Bengaluru urban received 168 percent surplus rainfall, reported PTI citing IMD data.

Earlier on Wednesday morning, the IMD had sounded an "orange" alert for Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu, and Shivamogga districts till 8:30 am on Thursday. It had raised a "yellow’ alert for Bagalkote, Belagavi, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, Vijayapura, Yadgir, Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru Urban, Chamarajanagar, Davanagere, Hassan, Mandya, and Mysuru districts for the same period.

Four colour codes - green (no action needed), yellow (watch and stay updated), orange (be prepared) and red (take action) - are used by the weather office for rain alerts.

Meanwhile, severe water logging due to heavy rainfall has led to traffic jams and disruptions in the lives of normal people in several parts of the city.

In order to tackle this, the Karnataka High Court has also directed the city's civic body - the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) - to immediately set up cells to address the grievances of the affected citizens.

(With inputs from PTI)