Rain brings down temperature in Dakshina Kannada

Mangaluru: The coastal district of Dakshina Kannada experienced a mild rainfall in the wee hours of Wednesday. Mangaluru, Puttur, Buntwal, Sullia, Belthangady and in parts of the Udupi district it brought down the summer heat to some extent.

The rain accompanied by thunder and lightning started at about 4 am and went on for an hour. None of the weather portals predicted it and, according to the India Meteorological Department, Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu in Karnataka and Kasargod and Waynad in Kerala received an average of 4 mm of rainfall on Wednesday. However, there is no reason assigned to this unseasonal rainfall by the weather portals, but many parts on the western coast have been marked as 'watch' with yellow coloured charts.

In some areas in Karnataka, these unseasonal rains are called 'mango showers' because this is the time when tender mangoes start blooming. But this year it has arrived a fortnight too soon causing the mango flowers to wilt. Those passionate mango growers with one or two trees in their front or backyards inside the city complain that the unseasonal rains like this affect the quality of the fruit. Three coastal districts of Karnataka receive an average of 4000 mm of rains on a year on year basis. The Agumbe Rainforest Complex (ARC) had been in the textbooks of the schools for its phenomenal rainfall ever since the first rain gauge was erected there in 1882. Agumbe was called Chirrapunji of the South for it got more than 8000 mm of rains. But now rain gauge managers say Hulikal is getting more rains than Agumbe and close behind it is Amagaon in Khanapur taluk of Belgaum district.