Bengaluru: A few hours of thundersquall in parts of west and north Bengaluru left several trees and electricity poles uprooted Monday evening.
Witnessing cloudy weather throughout the day, several parts of the city saw light to moderate rain along with gusty winds towards the evening. While 102 wards of the city reported rain, IMD officials said their Palace Road observatory recorded 6.2mm rainfall until 8:30 pm.
Meteorological officials said the intensity of rain in the city varied from place to place. “While it rained considerably in Yeshwantpur, Mahalakshmi Layout, Nandini Layout, and West of Chord Road, areas in the eastern parts of the city witnessed light showers towards the evening,” explained a duty officer at IMD, Bengaluru. According to officials, nearly 50% of the entire day’s rainfall was recorded between 5:30 pm and 7:30 pm.
The highest wind speed in the Bengaluru region was recorded near Doddaballapur (44-50 km/hr). “The wind speed over Bengaluru was 30-36 km/hr during the thundershowers,” explained the IMD official. Evidently, the strong winds brought down several trees and light poles, damaging properties and vehicles in Bengaluru.
“There were complaints of tree falls at Sampangiram Nagar, Srigandhada Kaval and Shankar Mutt. A few electricity poles were also uprooted at Rajajinagar and Mahalakshmi Layout, resulting in the snapping of transmission lines. Some vehicles were also damaged. We deployed Prahari teams, and Bescom officials were also alerted to clear the fallen trees and restore the power supply,” a senior BBMP engineer said.
The thundershowers also caused waterlogging in several areas, affecting vehicular traffic at West of Chord Road, Malleswaram, Yeshwantpur, and other locations. IMD had, in fact, sounded a ‘yellow’ (heavy rain) alert on Monday. IMD officials said both Bengaluru and parts of south interior Karnataka will receive intense thundershowers till April 20.