Hot spell in Karachi to persist until Friday, but it’s not heatwave: Met Office

The city endured a hot and dry weather for a second consecutive day on Monday when the mercury hit 39.5°C, with weather pundits warning that the current spell is expected to continue until Friday.

“Karachi is not in the grip of any heatwave, because such hot and dry weather has become common in March,” Met Office Karachi chief Abdur Rashid told The News. “On Sunday and Monday the temperature remained 39.5°C, which is less than the highest temperature of 42.2°C in this month that was recorded on March 20, 2010.”

The News also received an unconfirmed report of a K-Electric employee taken to a hospital on Sunday, after his condition deteriorated while on duty at the National Stadium during the final match of the Pakistan Super League’s third edition.

The source said Aqeel Khan fell down inside the stadium mosque and died during treatment, while a press photographer fainted while working under the sun. Health authorities, however, said that no such patients were brought to any health facility.

The Met Office chief said Karachi is witnessing a hot spell due to a change in the wind direction, adding that the sea breeze has stopped blowing, because of which hot and dry winds from the country’s plains have changed the weather in the city.

“We are expecting this hot and dry spell to continue until Friday, following which the weather would turn a little pleasant,” he said, adding that the temperature would drop a degree or two on Tuesday but would climb again on Wednesday and continue to rise in the following days.

Advising people to keep themselves hydrated and to avoid working under the sun for long during noon and afternoon hours, Rashid said the elderly should take precautionary measures because the hot weather can create health issues for them.

Rise in temperature is a normal phenomenon for Karachi in summers when the temperature often touches 40°C, but after the deadly heatwave of June 2015, when hundreds of people died in the city, people have started worrying about every hot spell.

Environmentalists and weather experts believe that in the coming years heatwaves would become a routine phenomenon in Pakistan, especially in Karachi where the weather used to remain normal and pleasant, because of climate change, the Arabian Sea’s rising temperature and frequent changes in wind directions in summers.

They blame a lack of trees in Karachi, the absence of water pools and open spaces with greenery, and growing concrete structures for the basic causes of rising temperatures. They advise people to increase tree cover, establish water pools at open spaces and avoid expansion of the city to mitigate the effects of climate change, including frequent heatwaves.