Windstorm continues to hit Peshawar

PESHAWAR: A strange weather phenomenon has been hitting the city and many other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the last three days due to strong windstorm.

The strong winds began on Tuesday and have continued unabated. The weathermen are saying it would continue at least until Friday or perhaps even beyond that on the weekend.

The gutsy winds make a frightful noise and many people with weak physique remain concerned that it would make them fall. Peshawar reportedly was hit the hardest, though Bannu, and many other districts too suffered the windstorm.

Many old people said this kind of weather has been rare. They said they don’t remember such strong winds continuing for days at a stretch.

The province had earlier been suffering from lack of rains affecting the agricultural crops, particularly wheat. Then the rains came to the sigh of relief by the farmers, who were worried their main crop, wheat, may fail this year.

But the strong windstorm now hitting Peshawar and many other cities and districts of the province is something unusual. The wind is so powerful it may uproot some of the crops as even big trees have been uprooted.

The biggest casualty of the windstorm are the electricity transmission lines across the province. The electricity supply has been disrupted a number of times despite the hectic efforts of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) workers busy in restoration work. A Pesco press release said the heavy storm packed a speed of 55 kilometres and sometimes even as high as 75 kilometres and caused electricity tripping. It claimed power supply had been restored in all the affected areas where the power distribution system was disrupted as trees fell on transmission lines and poles.