City receives hailstorm, rain

LAHORE : A heavy thunderstorm followed by scattered hailstorm and rain hit the city here on Saturday afternoon while Met office predicted similar weather conditions for the next 24 hours.

Overall the city witnessed cloudy weather but around the afternoon a heavy thunderstorm hit the city after which various city areas witnessed a hailstorm and rain while many areas remained dry. The hailstorm was observed in the central part of the city localities including Gulberg, FC College, Shadman, Ichra, Wahdat Road, Iqbal Town, Airport, Cantonment, Model Town, Upper Mall, GOR1, The Mall, Mozang and etc. The traffic was also disrupted due to the hailstorm and rain on the major roads including Main Boulevard Gulberg, Ferozpur Road, Canal Road, Multan Road, Wahdat Road and etc.

Following the hailstorm and rain, the field officers of Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), who were already put on alert by the Wasa MD Ghafran Ahmed, became active and started monitoring of the draining out process of the rainwater. Wasa MD, Commissioner Lahore, DC Lahore and other officers also came out in the field and started inspections of the sore points. However, stagnant rainwater was cleared from the roads till evening.

The MD put his team on alert in case the city witnessed any further rain during the night. On the other hand, Met officials had already warned that heavy rainfall may cause flash flooding in hill torrents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir, Murree, Galliyat and local nullah’s of Islamabad/Rawalpindi on Saturday.

They said heavy rain/heavy snowfall may cause closure of roads in Murree, Galiyat, Naran, Kaghan, Dir, Swat, Chitral, Kohistan, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Shangla, Astore, Hunza, Skardu, Neelum valley, Bagh, Poonch and Haveli. Landslides in Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Murree, Galiyat, Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan may affect the vulnerable points in the area. Met officials said a strong westerly wave was affecting most parts of the country and likely to persist in upper parts till tomorrow (today). They predicted that more rain-wind/thunderstorm (snowfall over the hills) was expected in upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Islamabad and Potohar region while cold and dry weather was likely in elsewhere in the country.

Rainfall was also recorded in many cities of other provinces as well as Punjab while snowfall was witnessed at Kalam, Chitral, Malam Jabba, Mirkhani, Skardu, Astore, Quetta and Drosh.

Saturday’s lowest minimum temperature was recorded at Kalat where mercury dropped down to -07°C while in Lahore it was 12.4°C and maximum was 24°C.