'Partly clouded, humid weather': Karachi resumes activities as Biparjoy threat abates

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said Karachi will remain partly cloudy, hot, and humid during the next 24 hours as the threat of cyclone Biparjoy passes without any major impact on the country.

The weather department added that the maximum temperature in the port city might reach 33°C-35°C, while the minimum temperature was recorded at 30°C.

"The percentage of humidity in the air is 76%, and windspeed is 14km/h from the southwest," the PMD added.

However, dust/thunderstorms with isolated heavy rain and hailstorms are likely in southeast Sindh, eastern Balochistan, north/eastern and south Punjab, Pothohar region, Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the next twelve hours.

Intense dust-storm with thunderstorm and rain is expected in southeast Sindh.

Dust storms/dust-raising winds are also likely over plain areas of the country.

Business as usual

Meanwhile, as the threat of Biparjoy — which is likely to further weaken into a "depression" today — abates, residents of the port city are set to resume their daily lives.

Exams of intermediate students and offices across Karachi will resume today.

Moreover, residents of Sindh's coastal areas, forced to flee their towns and villages ahead of Biparjoy's landfall, are returning to their homes as the emergency in these areas was listed on Friday.

The cyclone made landfall along the Indian Gujarat coast and Pakistan-India border a day earlier, sparing Sindh's coastline from significant damage.

Roofs were blown off houses, and trees and electric poles were uprooted, leaving thousands without power as a severe cyclone made landfall and rain lashed both the Indian and Pakistani coasts late Thursday.

At least two people died in India's western state of Gujarat after being swept away by flood waters just before the cyclone hit. However, in Pakistan, the cyclone had no major impact, with rain reported in some parts of the southern metropolis of Karachi, which is on high alert.

Over 180,000 people were evacuated in India and Pakistan in the last few days as authorities braced for cyclone Biparjoy, which means 'disaster' or 'calamity' in the Bengali language.