Weather: Lahore and adjoining areas. The first pre-monsoon rain finally broke the prolonged heat spell in Lahore and adjoining towns on Tuesday, providing the much-desired relief against extremely muggy weather. Earlier, a dust storm having a velocity of 83km per hour lashed the city at around 4pm. The immediate impact was a drop in the maximum temperature by 20 degrees Celsius --- from maximum 44 degrees Celsius to 24 degrees Celsius. It was also less than last night’s minimum 31 degrees Celsius. Chief Meteorologist Riaz Khan said the pre-monsoon rain had ended the spell of high temperatures in the country. An approaching westerly wave was also likely to generate more rain in the next at least three days and afterwards temperatures would not skyrocket anywhere in the country. “We are entering the medium temperature and high humidity monsoon season now,” he said. The Pakistan Meteorological Department expected early setting in of monsoon that traditionally begins in Pakistan from July 1. The city roads witnessed worst traffic jams during the rain. The most affected was the Jail Road, especially its Shadman Chowk portion, causing a lot of inconvenience to people. Many feeders tripped not only in Lahore but also in Okara and Kasur because of rain and windstorm. Power supply was nevertheless restored in a number of localities in Lahore after some time. Rain was generated after a low pressure suddenly appeared over Lahore and surrounding areas in view of high temperature. Abundant moisture from the Arabian Sea was also coming in. Before conversion into rain, the moisture was creating worst muggy conditions in the presence of high temperature, proving too much for the profusely sweating people to brave. The first relief came in the shape of the storm and the second of rain that immediately dropped temperature from the day’s maximum 44 degrees Celsius to 24 degrees Celsius. Wind was cold and many people were seen bathing under the rain to beat the heat of so many past days. By 8pm, the Met office had recorded 50mm of rain at the airport and 16mm at its Jail Road office. This indicated that rain was heavy on the eastern side closer to India than in the main city. The Met office had on Monday expected the first pre-monsoon weather system to grip upper and central parts of the country from Wednesday evening/night, It forecast on Tuesday that the first pre-monsoon rainfall in Kashmir, northeast Punjab and southeast Sindh would continue till Monday. The interaction of the pre-monsoon system with a fresh westerly wave that entered Pakistan’s western parts from Afghanistan was likely to generate widespread thunderstorm-rain with strong gusty winds.Heavy to very heavy falls at isolated places were expected in Upper Punjab (Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujranwala and Sargodha division), Upper KP (Hazara, Malakand, Peshawar and Kohat division) and Kashmir between Thursday and Sunday. The Flood Forecasting Division (FFD) in Lahore expected high flood in the river Kabul and its tributaries in Pakistan because of the expected rain during the next two days. It asked the authorities concerned to adopt precautionary measures in view of the expected inundation of the low lying areas along the river and the tributaries to avoid loss to human life and infrastructure. The river and its tributaries are already in low or medium flood because of the snow melt. Meanwhile, Murree received 63mm of rain, Kalat 8mm, Barkhan 6mm, Kotli 12mm, Mangla 3mm, Jhelum 1mm and Faisalabad and Sialkot traces.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 05:22:01 +0000