Mangaluru : The month of August saw more rains than in the previous months, and provided much relief to the beleaguered district, which had fallen behind the average rainfall of last year, till mid-August.

The pounding the district received in the last fortnight has been last year’s rainfall average of eight months—from January to August — being surpassed by 67mm, as on Tuesday. The fury of the rains could be gauged from the fact the district received 439mm rain in 12 days, from August 19 to August 30, as against 142 mm in the same period last year. But, it is still short by 579 mm compared to normal rainfall from January to the end of August, with just a day remaining in the month, as the district receives normal rainfall of 3,249 mm.

As far as the rainfall in the five taluks in the last 12 days of August is concerned, it rained 439 mm more than last year. The five taluks in the district last year, in the same period of last 12 days of August , received just 142 mm of rainfall. The taluks also received more rainfall in the last 12 days of August, with Belthangady taluk receiving 505mm rain, while last year it was 182 mm, followed by Sullia taluk at 478 mm, while last year it was 137 mm in the corresponding period. Puttur taluk received 422 mm rain in the same period, while it was 114 mm last year, and Mangaluru taluk received 401 mm, which was 147 mm last year in the corresponding period. Only Bantwal taluk received less than 400mm of rainfall, compared to last year’s August statistics, at 394 mm. Last year, the taluk received 130 mm rain.

The five taluks of Dakshina Kannada district received an average 30 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours till Wednesday. Belthangady taluk received the highest rainfall at 38mm, followed by Sullia at 34 mm. Mangaluru taluk received 32 mm rain. The taluks of Bantwal and Puttur received 21 mm and 24 mm rain respectively. The five taluks of the district received 9.8 mm rain on this day last year.

The water level in the Nethravathi river at Bantwal and Uppinangady and Kumaradhara rivers at Uppinangady were well below the danger levels, and water levels in the latter two were at 21 metres, with the danger level being 28.5 metres. The cumulative rainfall from January to August was 2,670mm this year, while it was 2,583 mm last year. The district receives an average of 3,249 mm of rainfall by August end, in the first eight months of the year.