Karnataka - Bangalore   

Conditions conducive for north-east monsoon

BANGALORE: Wednesday night’s thundershower has worked its magic, returning Bangalore to its salubrious climes after the longest rainless gap (between September 30 and October 17) the Meteorological Department has known in at least 10 years for this period.

At a significant 28 mm, the shower brought the temperatures down to 18 degrees Celsius on Thursday. The mercury had risen to 32.3 degrees Celsius on Sunday, close to the all time high for the month that Bangalore has ever recorded (32.4 degrees Celsius in 2002 October).

The showers signal a “favourable shift” in wind direction from a northerly to easterly direction, says G.S. Vijayaraghavan, Director, Meteorological Centre. Even as the south-west monsoon retreats over the country, the conditions are now right for the north-east monsoon, which will make its presence felt in south interior Karnataka anytime after Saturday, he says. “Until Monday, the winds were from a northerly direction – these were dry winds that lead to clear skies and rising temperatures. On Tuesday however, the winds reversed direction and blew from the east. The easterly winds will bring in moisture,” Mr. Vijayaraghavan says.

Bangalore’s rainiest months, September and October, are also unpredictable. “The monsoon is after all a wind-driven phenomenon. It does not follow statistical rules,” Mr. Vijayaraghavan says. This year was no exception. The umbrellas came out earlier than anticipated this May with the onset of the south-west monsoon a few days earlier than scheduled. Happily so, for the rising temperatures were just about becoming intolerable. Come September however, and Bangaloreans were left wishing they had never hoped for the rain – the city received such a copious downpour, that more than its entire month’s quota of September rain was reached by the middle of the month. At 271 mm, the September rain this year broke a 10-year record (the last time the city received more rain in September was in 1997, at 277 mm).

But just when the woollens were pulled out and blankets aired in anticipation of winter, came the inexplicable fortnight-long dry spell between September 30 and October 17, a “rather unusually long gap” for this period, and one that the city had not seen in at least 10 years, according to Mr. Vijayaraghavan. Not surprisingly, the temperatures crawled up slowly, touching 32.3 degrees Celsius in October.

In the next 48 hours, rain is expected in many parts of south interior Karnataka, few places in coastal Karnataka and in isolated pockets of north interior Karnataka. Bangalore will see one or two spells of rain too, according to the Met Department.

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