NEM effect: Rains to continue in state

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: The recent rains that have been observed in the state are forecast to continue in the days to come and the North East Monsoon (NEM) is being cited as the reason.

Showers have hit Bengaluru Urban and Rural, adjoining districts of the Old Mysuru region, Malnad and coastal Karnataka.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) told News Trail that the NEM effect would influence northern Karnataka in the second week of November. NEM is named for the direction in which these monsoon winds blow.

“It is the North East Monsoon. It is the easterly winds. Due to this, the moisture accumulation is high,” an IMD scientist said.

He added that NEM brought heavy rainfall to Tamil Nadu and only light showers to Karnataka. He said that “South Interior Karnataka” (SIK) and Coastal Karnataka (CK) were likely to receive rainfall this week as well.

“For North Interior Karnataka (NIK), we are expecting scattered rainfall on eight and ninth (November),” he said.

“This rainfall due to easterly winds will shift to the north,” he added. In the wee hours of Saturday and up to Sunday 9 am, Bengaluru’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) airport area received 35 mm of rain.

Yellow alert in 5 districts

As many as five districts have been issued yellow alerts for Monday by the IMD. Dakshina Kannada on the coast, Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu and Hassan in Malnad and Kolar are the five districts.

IMD classifies yellow alert as heavy rainfall, which is anywhere between 64.5 mm to 115.5 mm. On Sunday, Dharmasthala town in Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, Somwarpet town in Kodagu district, Hunsur town in Mysuru district, Sakleshpur town in Hassan district received 4 cms of rain each, the highest in the state.

Deficit showers in October

The IMD scientist reiterated that Karnataka’s cumulative rainfall deficit in October had reached 62 per cent. The north of the state suffered a rainfall deficit of 90 per cent, the highest of any region in the state.

Southern Karnataka experienced 53 per cent less rainfall than expected. Meanwhile, coastal Karnataka districts suffered a rainfall deficit of 32 per cent. The four districts that didn’t experience deficit rainfall in the previous month were Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu, Hassan and Mysuru.

The State government had declared a drought in 216 of the 236 taluks in the state. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called it a “green drought”, which is understood to be a phenomenon wherein there is limited rainfall, which causes new plants to grow but insubstantially. 

Expect slightly warmer winter

The scientist said that intensification of ‘El Nino’ or abnormal warming of the surface water in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, which had resulted in suppression of rainfall (in the northern hemisphere), would also cause a slightly warmer winter.

He said that we can expect temperatures “one to two degrees” above normal. He also disclosed that the onset of winter was expected in December.