New Year gets a welcome, rainy beginning

Islamabad: As predicted by the Met Office, the New Year has got off to a welcome, rainy start. Distressed by the three months long dry spell, the residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi cheered up on Tuesday morning to see the rain fall.

Though very light, the precipitation provided the long-awaited relief from the dry, foggy weather to the relief of the people suffering from throat and chest infections, flu and fever. According to the Met Office, the twin cities received a trace of rain in the morning making the day nippy, windy by and large.

There is a high likelihood that the wet weather caused by a fresh westerly wave present in upper parts of the country will continue until Saturday. The dry spell was the longest in a decade.

Though a few spells of light rain was reported in some areas, the countrywide weather remained dry for the last three months causing foggy and smoggy conditions and health problems. Ironically, December had been without rain for the first time since 2011.

The Tuesday’s pleasant weather caused by brief wet spell prompted families to turn to parks and recreational spots, including Pir Sohawa, Daman-i-Koh, Lake View Park, Fatima Jinnah Park, Shakarparian, Shahdara and Chattar.

Many went to the nearby Murree hill station with others planning to follow suit over the weekend. Restaurants and cafés attracted large crowds, while the sellers of ‘samosa’, ‘pakora’ and ‘jaleebi’ reported high sales, especially in the afternoon and evening.

The Met Office forecasts intermittent rainfall in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, upper parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkwa and Punjab, FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir with snowfall on hills until Saturday (January 7).

It insists thundershowers are expected in Islamabad and Rawalpindi in the next 48 hours. The minimum and maximum temperature recorded in the federal capital on Tuesday was six and 20 degree centigrade respectively with the humidity level being 88 per cent.