Karachi braves another hot day as mercury hits 42°C

KARACHI: The port city braved the second warmest day of the year in the city on Saturday when the mercury soared to 42 degrees Celsius under the influence of warm and dry winds from the north and north-westerly directions, but the weather later improved slightly due to partial resumption of sea breeze.

Absence of electricity in most parts of the metropolis because of announced and unannounced load-shedding added to the people’s miseries, while many parts of the city from Gulshan-e-Maymar to Baldia Town and from Bihar Colony in Lyari to several areas of Landhi and Korangi remained without water.

“Today [on Saturday] the mercury soared to 42°C, and we are expecting a similar kind of weather on Sunday, with the temperature remaining at 42°C under the influence of warm winds and suspension of sea breeze,” Karachi Met Office chief Abdur Rashid told The News. Weather pundits say a wide low pressure area on upper Sindh is the cause of extremely hot and dry weather in Karachi and the rest of the province, as it has deprived the metropolis of its cooling system: sea breeze. They said hot and dry conditions are likely to continue until Thursday.

Karachi is enduring a second heatwave this month, as during the previous spell the temperature had reached 44°C under the influence of another low pressure area that had deprived the city and other coastal areas of the province of sea breeze.

Met officials warn that more heatwaves are expected this month and the next due to climate change and its influence in the region.

They advise people to take precautionary measures, keep an eye on weather updates and stay indoors during the day if a heatwave warning is issued. Rashid said the temperature is expected to remain between 41 and 43°C the next four days. “For the next four to five days, people, especially those who are fasting, the elderly and children, are advised not to venture out in the sun, while labourers should also refrain from hard labour under the sun.”

Meanwhile, despite the forewarning of intensely hot and dry weather during Ramazan, the K-Electric continued depriving almost the entire city of power, as people in many localities complained of outages of up to 12 hours a day.

The KE claims that a unit of its Bin Qasim power plant is not functioning because of a technical fault, saying that power generation from the affected plant can take 10 more days, so it will continue load-shedding in the city.

Many parts of the city also remained without water, as people were driven from pillar to post to get water tankers during the intensely hot weather after the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board failed to provide the most essential commodity from Gulshan-e-Maymar to Lyari, from Baldia Town to Shershah and their adjoining localities and many localities of Landhi and Korangi among several others.