LAHORE: Heavy to moderate rain inundated several city localities here Thursday while Met office predicted more scattered rain during the next 24 hours. Black clouds covered the city skies early morning and finally lashed out freezing rain. The rain started around 11am and continued till night. Long hours traffic jams were also reported on various city roads as rainwater remained stagnant. The rainwater has finally washed out the smog-filled skies of the provincial capital as city roads were filled with whitish rainwater indicating that it contained many pollutants, which remained suspended in Lahore’s air for the past several days. Thursday’s rain brought out the original green look of the city. On the other hand, stagnant rainwater slowed down the traffic on city roads, including Ferozepur Road, Canal Bank Road, The Mall, Mozang, Jail Road, Baghbanpura, MM Alam Road, Punjab University, Allama Iqbal Town, Jauhar Town, Sabzazar, Multan Road, Chauburji, Anarkali, Data Darbar, Shahdara, Mughalpura, Bibi Pakdaman, Davis Road, Shalimar Link Road, Shadbagh, GT Road and etc. Meanwhile, Met office said a shallow westerly wave is still affecting upper parts of the country and likely to persist during next two-three days. They predicted that mainly cold and dry weather is expected in most parts of the country. They predicted that rain thunderstorm with light snowfall over the hills is expected at a few places in Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Lahore divisions, Upper Fata, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan while foggy conditions are likely to prevail at a few places in southern & central parts of Punjab during morning hours. On Thursday, rain-thunderstorm with snowfall over the hills occurred at scattered places in Rawalpindi, Zhob divisions, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata, Islamabad and Kashmir while at isolated places in Gujranwala and Sargodha divisions, Met officials said. Rainfall was recorded at several cities, including Cherat 26mm, Dir 19mm, Saidu Sharif, Lower Dir 15mm, Malam Jabba 14mm, Risalpur 10mm, Peshawar (PAF 09mm, City 05mm), Balakot 08mm, Kakul 07mm, Parachinar, Mirkhani 06mm, Bannu 05mm, Kalam, Drosh 02mm, Chitral 01mm, Islamabad (Golra, Bokra 15mm, Saidpur, Z.P 11mm), Murree 11mm, Rawalpindi (Shamsabad 10mm, Chaklala 07mm), Chakwal 04mm, MB Din 02mm, Kamra 01mm, Zhob 10mm, Muzaffarabad 08mm, Rawalakot 06mm, Garhi Dupatta 04mm and Kotli 01mm. Thursday’s minimum temperature was reported at Kalat where mercury dropped down to -04°C while it was -02°C at Skardu and -01°C at Quetta and Malam Jabba. In Lahore, maximum temperature dropped down to 19°C, minimum was 11.5°C and humidity level was 67 percent.
