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Monsoon has picked up pace in Karnataka: Experts
The Director of India Meteorological Department (IMD) Bengaluru, A Prasad, said Biparjoy affected the monsoon wind circulation pattern, resulting in delayed monsoon and rainfall deficit in June
While the delayed monsoon had become a cause for concern in many parts of the state, the monsoon has picked up pace in the past few days with rainfall deficit only in south interior Karnataka, according to weather experts.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD), Bengaluru, Director, A Prasad said Biparjoy affected the monsoon wind circulation pattern, resulting in delayed monsoon and rainfall deficit in June. However, synoptic features like Westerly winds, offshore trough, shear zone have started establishing since July, conducive for vigorous monsoon, Prasad said.
According to Prasad, the rainfall deficit currently is only in the south interior Karnataka - Ramanagara (-44%), Kodagu (-34%) and Hassan (-20%), compared to June, when almost all the districts had deficit rainfall.
“The monsoon started in Karnatala very late, ten days behind the schedule. It’s not the first time this has happened. It has happened in the past as well in 2016, 2019 and other years. Therefore, we had deficit in June. But we had already forecasted that the monsoon would be very active in July. I’d said earlier that there would be active and vigorous monsoon conditions from June 21-July 27,” Prasad said.
“When monsoon started in Kerla, cyclone Biparjoy took over and delayed it and changed the circulation pattern completely. That’s why the Westerly winds were not strong. Now the synoptic features like offshore trough, shear zone have started establishing since July,” Prasad pointed out.
According to data furnished by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre (KSNDMC), as of July 25, as many as nine districts in Karnataka come under deficit rainfall, 20 districts saw normal rainfall and two districts got excess rain from June 1 to July 25 this monsoon. In June, as many as 21 districts were under deficit rainfall, five saw normal rainfall and one district got excess rain.
While the farmers had expressed concern over the deficit rainfall in the initial phase of the monsoon as it could affect production of several important crops, Prasad said they need to be concerned anymore.
“As far as farming is concerned, I don’t think there is any problem. The farmers don’t need to be concerned about the rains anymore. The outlook for August also shows that near-normal rainfall is possible. The normal rainfall is when it is above 83 cm as a whole for the state. We are expecting anything between 72 cm and 92 cm,” Prasad pointed out.
Meanwhile, the IMD has issued a red alert for Coastal Karnataka and Chikkamagaluru till Wednesday morning. The weather department forecasted extremely heavy rainfall (over 204.5mm) for the three coastal districts and Chikkamagaluru.
“Gusty wind with speed reaching 40-50 kmph is likely to occur at isolated places from July 25-July 26 and gusty wind with speed reaching 30-40 kmph is likely to occur at isolated places from July 27-July 29,” the IMD said.
The IMD has also issued an orange alert forecasting very heavy rainfall (115.6 mm to 204.4 mm) in Shivamogga, Kodagu and Belagavi till Thursday morning.
Amid the heavy rainfall, the district administrations on Tuesday declared a holiday for all educational institutions in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, and Kodagu.
Meanwhile, in order to assess the rain-relate damages, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called a virtual meeting with Deputy Commissioners of all districts at 4 pm on July 26.
