Tropical cyclone: Karachi bracing for moderate to heavy showers

KARACHI: While the weather conditions on Thursday remained calm with incidence of high velocity winds and light rain in evening, the Pakistan Meteorological Department forecast moderate to heavy rain and possible isolated heavy falls from Friday to late Saturday under the influence of deep depression that is likely to convert into a tropical cyclone tomorrow.

"The delayed formation of tropical cyclone Shaheen in the Arabian Sea prevented heavy rains in Karachi on Thursday and now the city is expected to receive moderate to heavy showers with some isolated heavy falls from Friday onwards," Director Met Karachi Sardar Sarfraz told The News on Thursday night.

Karachi was, however, lashed with strong winds that uprooted several electric poles and scattered drizzling on Thursday evening. Met has warned that Karachi and other coastal cities of Sindh and Balochistan will be buffeted by gusty winds and heavy showers when the cyclone passes by on Friday morning.

In its revised alert on Thursday, the Met Office located the Arabian Sea depression at 240-km east-southeast of Karachi warning the likelihood of strengthening into a cyclonic storm during next 12 to 18 hours, which would then barrel towards west-northwestwards. “The depression over northeast Arabian Sea that moved west-north westward at 20km/hr in last 12 hours, now lies 240 kms east-southeast of Karachi, 200 kms from Thatta and 410 kms from Ormara." Against the backdrop, the Met Office advised the provincial government to “maintain high alert.”

For Friday to late Saturday, the Met Office forecast “widespread rain, wind and thunderstorms with scattered heavy to very heavy rainfall that could also turn into extremely heavy rain with squally (strong) winds in Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Badin, Mirpurkhas, Thaparker, Umerkot, Sanghar, Shaheed Benazirabad, Nosheroferoz, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allayar, Dadu, Jamshoro, Sukkur, Larkana, Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Ghotki districts from Sep 30 to Oct 2 (Thursday to Saturday).”

The forecast prompted the provincial educational department to order shutting down all universities, schools and colleges on Friday. The Met Office also advised fishermen not to venture into the sea till October 3 [Sunday] citing “very rough” conditions in the Arabian Sea for next three days. Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Panel on Tropical Cyclone have named the prospective cyclone “Shaheen”.

On Thursday, the city remained on edge since early in the morning when strong winds packing maximum velocity of 42 kms per hour lashed the city. The weather that had remained extremely hot on Wednesday moderated to 33.5 degree Celsius mark and 66 percent humidity.

The strong winds caused minor incidents of bringing down a few poles on the Rashid Minhas Road and at the bridge connecting Rashid Minhas Road with COD Road, damaging a parked rickshaw and suspension of traffic on the bridge. A car was also damaged when a pole collapsed over it near Frere Hall, while power supply and vehicular traffic were also suspended for sometime. Near Ibrahim Hyderi, a boat carrying five fishermen was rescued when it capsized in high tides. An official of the Fishermen’s Cooperative Society confirmed all the fishermen were rescued.

The Sindh Chief Minister, Murad Ali Shah, tasked the ministers to supervise relief and rescue operations. The Excise and Taxation Minister, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, was tasked to monitor the situation in Karachi’s South District, Minister of Labour, Information and Human Resources Saeed Ghani, East District, Spl Asst to CM on Inter-Provincial Coordination Taimur Talpur was assigned Korangi while Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza and Minister for Zakat and Ushr Sajid Jokhio would look after Central and Malir districts respectively.