February 2024 witnesses 23pc above average rainfall

LAHORE: February 2024 has witnessed 23 percent above average rainfall while the month stood as the 8th highest area-weighted rainfall for Balochistan and Sindh.

Data collected from Met office revealed that the national mean monthly temperature for Pakistan was 14.49°C, being +0.88°C warmer than the country average (13.60°C).

The daytime (maximum) temperature at the country-level was 21.61°C, being +1.13°C warmer than the country average of 20.49°C, the data revealed, adding the nighttime (minimum) temperature at country level was 7.30°C, also +1.09°C warmer than the countrywide average of 6.20°C.

The hottest day of the month was observed at Shaheed Benazirabad (Sindh) when it recorded a maximum temperature of 35.5°C on 18 and 19 February whereas Mithi remained the warmest place with a mean monthly maximum temperature of 30.8°C.

Similarly, the coldest night temperature (-14.0°C) of the month was recorded at Kalam (KP) on February 6, 2024, which too happened to be the coolest place with -mean monthly minimum temperature of 8.6°C.

The Met office data revealed that climatologically, the February rainfall contribution to the national annual total and Winter (JFM) was 8.4% & 33.5%, respectively. During the month, Pakistan experienced 3-4 moderate to heavy rainfall or very heavy spells. February 2024 rainfall was slightly above average, with 30.6mm (+23%), for Pakistan as a whole. Situation was diverse on regional scale i.e. Sindh with 14.4mm (+174%) & Balochistan with 39.2mm (+108%) recorded excessively above average rainfall and stood as the 8th wettest February in the regions (record was 25.9mm and 77.4mm in 2005, respectively). Punjab with 11.7mm (-50%) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) with 10.1mm (-46%) both recorded below-average rainfall while the AJ&K with 82.5mm (-1%) and KP with 61.7mm (-8%) both experienced near average rainfall.

The wettest day of the month in the country was 28th when Jiwani (Balochistan) recorded 137.0mm rainfall. Whereas Gwadar was the wettest place with a monthly total rainfall of 207.1mm. The other significant rainfalls recorded were Rawalakot with165.4mm, Jiwani with 158.0mm, Muzaffarabad Airport with 149.9mm, Muzaffarabad City with 142.4mm, Dir with 142.0mm, Pattan with 138.0mm, Balakot with 135.0mm, Parachinar with 127.0mm, Kalam with 123.0mm, Garhi Dupatta with 122.4mm, Cherat with 122.0mm, Malam-Jabba with 115.0mm, Saidu Sharif with 112.0mm, Kakul with 109.0mm and Murree with 104.6mm. The stations of Sahiwal, DI Khan and Badin recorded only traces of rainfall during the month, while the stations of Hunza and Mithi remained absolutely dry with no rain during the month.

Met office data also revealed that February 2024 was +0.88°C warmer than average for Pakistan as a whole, with national mean monthly temperature being 14.49°C against the country average of 13.60°C. So was the case in all the regions i.e Sindh with 20.08°C (+1.17°C), Balochistan with 15.01°C (+1.15°C), KP with 10.45°C (+0.70°C), Punjab with 15.73°C (+0.53°C), AJK with 6.94°C (+0.39°C) and GB with 3.65°C (+0.17°C) all exhibited warmer than average temperatures. The mean temperature anomalies of February 2024 were in range from -1.0 to +2.6°C in the country.

February 2024 mean-maximum (daytime) temperature of 21.61°C recorded at country-level being +1.13°C warmer than average of 20.49°C. Similarly, warmer than average mean maximum temperatures have been observed in all regions.