K’taka Rains: IMD Issues Red Warning for Three Coastal Districts

The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a red warning for all the three districts of coastal Karnataka for the next three days starting from Wednesday.

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute) 

The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a red warning for all the three districts of coastal Karnataka for the next three days starting from Wednesday, 23 October.

An orange warning has been issued to some districts of north and south interior Karnataka.

The red warning means the coastal districts of Udupi, Uttara and Dakshina Kannada will have widespread rainfall, with places receiving heavy to very heavy rainfall and some isolated places receiving extremely heavy rainfall.

North Karnataka districts like Belagavi, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Koppal are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall, accompanied with thundershowers till 24 October. From 26 October, the warning will be reduced to yellow, suggesting heavy rainfall.

These rains could trigger floods again in the northern parts of the state, as both Ghataprabha and Krishna rivers are breaching danger levels.

This is just two months since the entire region was ravaged by floods in August. The Central Water Commission’s Flood Forecast Monitoring Directorate on Tuesday morning issued an orange bulletin signalling severe flood situation.

The bulletin said, “River Ghatprabha at Gokak Falls in Belgaum district of Karnataka continues to flow in SEVERE SITUATION at 06:00 hrs today. At 06:00 hrs, it was flowing at a level of 542.02 m with Falling trend which is 0.02 m above its Danger Level of 542.0 m and 4.86 m below its previous HFL of 546.88 m (2005-08-23).

It added, “River Krishna at Navalgund in Dharwad district of Karnataka continues to flow in SEVERE SITUATION at 06:00 hrs today. At 06:00 hrs, it was flowing at a level of 565.95 m with Steady trend which is 1.95 m above its Danger Level of 564.0 m and 2.62 m below its previous HFL of 568.57 m (2017-10-16).”

Similarly, south interior and central Karnataka districts of Chamarajanagar, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, Hassan, Mysuru, Shivamogga and Kodagu will have heavy to very heavy rainfall accompanied with thundershowers (orange) warning for the next three days.

(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute)