Rain, gusty winds predicted

LAHORE

Westerly clouds have provided a little respite to the Lahorites who were spending sleepless nights due to the persistent heat wave as well as unscheduled outages for the last several days.

Though the rain was scattered, it brought the mercury down on Wednesday morning relieving the heat-stricken citizens a little. Met officials said a shallow westerly wave is affecting upper parts of the country and may persist during 24 hours.

Met officials predicted that rain-thunderstorm with gusty winds is expected at isolated places in Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Lahore divisions, Islamabad, Fata, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir. They said hot and dry weather is expected in other parts of the country.

On Wednesday, dust-thunderstorm/rain with gusty winds also occurred at scattered places in Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Kohat, Hazara divisions, Islamabad and Kashmir while at isolated places in Bahawalpur, Malakand divisions and Gilgit-Baltistan.

During the last 24 hours, rainfall was recorded at several cities, including Islamabad (Saidpur 33mm, Z.P 10mm, Bokra 13mm), Jhelum (20mm), Mandi Bahauddin (12mm), Chakwal (10mm), Chaklala 07mm, Shamsabad 04mm, TT Singh (07mm), Mangla (06mm), Sialkot (04mm), Gujranwala (03mm), Jhang and Gujrat (01mm), Muzaffarabad (15mm), Garhi Dupatta (08mm), Rawalakot (03mm), Kotli (02mm), Saidu Sharif and Kohat (06mm), Lower Dir (05mm), Malam Jabba and Balakot (02mm) and Astore (01mm).

Wednesday’s maximum temperature was recorded at Turbat where mercury reached 51°C while it was 49°C in Sibbi, 48°C at Jacobabad, Dadu, Larkana, Gawadar and Jiwani, 47°C at Lasbella, Mohen Jodaro, Sukkur and Rohri, 46°C at Rahimyar Khan, Sh Benazirabad and Padidan. Met officials said on Wednesday the record of maximum temperature of 48°C observed in Jiwani where earlier record was 45.7°C, which occurred on May 25, 1992. In Lahore, maximum temperature came down to 32°C, minimum was 23.8°C and humidity was 38 percent.