Downpour lashes Lahore, brings back chill

LAHORE: Chill in the air revisited as heavy rain hit the provincial capital here on Friday. Majority of the City roads submerged by rainwater creating problems for commuters. Met office predicted similar weather conditions for the next 24 hours.

The rain started in the afternoon and continued till night in various spans. As per the data of Wasa, the highest 95 mm rainfall was recorded at Lakshmi Chowk while the detail of rainfall in other areas is: Tajpura (80 mm), Mughalpura (70 mm), Upper Mall (66 mm), Jail Road (52.25 mm), Gulshan-e-Ravi (51), Farrukhabad (48), Chowk Nakhuda (46 mm), Nishter Town (45 mm), Paniwala Talab (42 mm), Johar Town (40 mm), Gulberg (39 mm), Airport (38.5), Iqbal Town (38 mm) and Samanabad (31 mm). Following the rain, field staff of Wasa became active and started drainage of rainwater from the city roads.

Wasa Managing Director Ghafran Ahmed also started visiting city areas to monitor the post rain drainage operation. He said all Wasa staff was active in the field and most of the city areas were cleared during the rain.

The Commissioner Lahore also came out in the field and visited various localities of the city along with MD Wasa. He directed the LWMC staff to clear the blockings of drainage points on the main roads to clear the rainwater. The Commissioner also directed the officers of district administration to supervise the post-rain operations.

Meanwhile, the Met office said that a westerly wave was affecting upper parts of the country while another westerly wave was likely to approach upper and western parts from tomorrow (Sunday). They predicted that rain-wind/thunderstorm was expected in upper Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, upper Punjab, Islamabad, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan while dry weather was expected in other parts of the country.

Friday’s maximum temperature was recorded at Turbat where mercury reached 37°C while in Lahore, it was 22.2°C and minimum was 16.3°C.