The festival of Ugadi (New Year as per the Hindu calendar) passed off this year without the customary ‘Ugadi male’ (rains) in Bengaluru. The temperature hovered around 35 degrees Celsius on the festival day on Tuesday, the only solace being that it was a few degrees lower than in the preceding days. Once known by the sobriquet of an ‘air-conditioned city’, Bengaluru saw temperature crossing 38 degrees Celsius this April. It has been a double whammy for Bengalureans this summer considering the serious water crisis in the city.
No sign of rain
Though the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecast that many parts of Karnataka, including Bengaluru, would witness above-normal maximum temperatures during the summer months of March, April, and May, the weather forecaster had also predicted a high probability of above-normal rainfall in March over a few districts of south-interior Karnataka, which includes Bengaluru.
