Karachiites brave 40°C second day in a row

The people of Karachi braved 40 degrees Celsius for the second consecutive day on Sunday under the influence of a low pressure area in the Arabian Sea, which is likely to convert in a tropical cyclone but would not cause any damage to the city or any other coastal areas of Pakistan, officials said.

“Under the influence of an existing low pressure area in the east-central and the adjoining north-east Arabian Sea, which intensified into a depression, sea breeze remained cut off towards Karachi and the city’s maximum temperature rose to 40.2°C on Sunday,” an official of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said.

PMD officials said Karachi was in the grip of a light heatwave due to the active weather system in the Arabian Sea, adding that some parts of the city even received light rain and drizzle under the influence of the passing clouds but that did not bring the temperature down.

They said that the prevailing hot conditions would continue for the next two to three days, with the maximum temperature remaining between 37°C and 39°C, adding that the weather was likely to improve by the end of the week.

Tropical cyclone

The PMD’s Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre said the low pressure area over the east-central and the adjoining north-east Arabian Sea had intensified into a depression and lay centred around latitude 19.8° north and longitude 69.4° east, about 610 kilometres southeast of Karachi.

“It is likely to intensify further into a tropical cyclone during the next 18 to 24 hours and move westward to Oman’s coast. None of Pakistan’s coastal areas is under any threat from this system,” a spokesman for the warning centre said.

The spokesman, however, advised Sindh’s fishermen against venturing into deep sea during the next few days, saying that the tropical cyclone was likely to dissipate in the sea without causing any damage to any coastal area in the region.