Heavy rain lashed Bengaluru on Saturday, crippling normal life, causing huge traffic snarls across the city as roads were flooded and inundating low-laying areas.
Starting intermittently around 1.30 p.m., the rain picked up pace, turned into a downpour by 2 p.m. and lasted for over two hours in and around the city.
"The city is experiencing moderate to heavy rains due to east-west shear zone and upper air cyclonic circulation over the Kerala coast and Lakshadweep islands," a weather official told IANS.
About 60 mm of rain was recorded till 5.30 p.m. in the city, 19mm on outskirts and 17.4mm in the airport area.
"These (rains) are pre-monsoon showers, occurring over the last two-three weeks across the state, reducing day and night temperatures during mid-summer and bringing relief to the people from scorching heat," the official said.
Though the met department had forecast generally cloudy sky, with the possibility of rain or thunderstorm for Saturday, the 10 million residents of the city were caught unawares by the heavy rain, which disrupted weekend trips and affected water and power supply.
"Weather outlook for the city on Sunday is cloudy sky and rain or thunderstorm to occur from late afternoon or evening. Though rain subsided on Saturday evening, the sky remained overcast and drizzling continued till late into night," the official added.
The downpour also forced Delhi Daredevils to cancel its practice session at the nets in the Chinnaswamy stadium here ahead of the last league tie of the IPL-8 with the hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday evening.
Maximum temperature dipped to 30 degrees Celsius, which is three degrees departure from normal (33 degrees Celsius) and minimum to 22.5 degrees Celsius, two degree departure from normal.
The superceded civic body, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, was also caught unawares by the downpour, as evident from hundreds of distress calls to its control rooms from across the city, complaining of uprooted trees and electric poles falling and telephone lines snapping.
