Monsoon hits Karnataka coast

Bengaluru: After a delay of a few days, the South West Monsoon finally entered Karnataka on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain to parts of its coast and northern 
districts.

“The monsoon's entry has led to rain in coastal parts of the state. While the rainfall is scattered at present, the monsoon is expected to bring widespread rainfall across the state over the next few days,” said Mr Sundar Metri, head of the meteorological department in Bengaluru, speaking to the Deccan Chronicle.

Going by the monsoon forecast for the state, the rainfall is expected to be normal this year, unlike last year when there was deficit  rain in the months of August and September.

Although the state will largely experiencing light to moderate rainfall to begin with, it could receive widespread and heavy from June 11 onwards, according to Mr G S  Srinivas Reddy, director of Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, which had predicted that the monsoon could hit the state by the end of May.

“The rainfall distribution was not even last year and we saw a huge deficit,  especially in the months of August and September,” he said.

“But this year we are expecting a normal monsoon,”  he added although there could be lesser rain in July, the overall distribution of the monsoon would be normal across the state.