Erratic monsoon may result in floods: Met

LAHORE: Scattered rain was observed in the city here on Tuesday while the Met office predicted scattered but heavy rain during the next 48 hours.

Met officials said moist currents from the Arabian Sea are penetrating into upper and central parts of the country while a westerly wave is affecting most upper and central parts of the country and is likely to persist till Thursday.

They predicted that mainly hot and dry weather is expected in most parts of the country during day time but rain/dust-thundershower with isolated heavy falls with gusty winds is expected at scattered places in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sargodha, DG Khan, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Faisalabad divisions, KP, Fata, Islamabad and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Zhob Division while light rain/drizzle is expected at few places along the Sindh coast.

Met officials said that during July, monsoon rainfall may range in normal limits but less than normal rainfall is likely in August and September. They added that less frequent rains in southern half of the country may trigger drought-like conditions. There is a high probability of localised rain spells which may generate flash flooding in mountainous and sub-mountainous regions.

Due to erratic behaviour of monsoon, extreme precipitation events may occur at isolated places in the country, which can result into floods. Localised events of rainfall coupled with rapid melting in the glaciated regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral may trigger GLOF events, they maintained.

On Tuesday, rain/dust-thundershower with gusty winds occurred at scattered places in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sargodha, DG Khan, Multan, Bahawalpur, Malakand, Hazara divisions, Islamabad and Kashmir. Weather remained hot and dry elsewhere in the country.

Cities where rainfall occurred included Islamabad (Saidpur 70mm, ZP 20mm, Bokra 07mm Golra 01mm), Murree 35mm, Sialkot (AP 30mm, City 27mm), Mangla 24mm, Lahore (PBO 17mm, Punjab Uni 11mm, AP 06mm), Bahawalpur (City 17mm, AP 06mm), Gujrat 17mm, Rawalpindi (Shamsabad 14mm, Chaklala 10mm), Jhelum 13mm, DG Khan, Joharabad, Kasur 09mm, Gujranwala 08mm, MB Din 04mm, Mianwali 03mm, Kot Addu, Multan, Bahawalnagar 02mm, Dir 11mm, Kakul 06mm, Malam Jabba 03mm, Lower Dir 01mm and Kotli 02mm.

Tuesday’s maximum temperature was recorded at Nokkundi where mercury reached 47°C while in Lahore, it was 32°C, minimum was 23.8°C and humidity was 57 percent.