Rainfall in May remains below normal

LAHORE:National rainfall in the month of May 2022 was 48.4% largely below normal while it was almost 2.17°C warmer than monthly average temperature and was termed the fifth warmest month since 1961.

Data collected from Met office revealed that May 2022 rainfall remained largely below normal over all parts of the country with Balochistan (-91%), Sindh (-91%), GB (-59%), Punjab (-46%), AJK (-37%) and KP (-25%).

The wettest day of the month in the country was 3rd May, when Malam Jabba recorded 42mm rainfall and proved to be the wettest place with highest monthly total rainfall of 105.1mm in May 2022, the data further revealed. It showed that many stations in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan have reported nil or only traces of rainfall. The data showed that all the provinces witnessed extremely dry conditions during the month. The least rainfall occurred in the province of Sindh (0.3mm/-91%) while the situation in the other regions was not very different as Balochistan (0.5mm/-91%, 4th driest May in the region), GB (11.2mm/-59%), Punjab (8.4mm/-46%), AJK (38.2/-37%) and KP (32.3mm/-25%) all experienced extremely dry conditions. The data showed that May 2022 as a whole witnessed 30.93°C mean average temperature, which was 2.17°C warmer than monthly-average of 28.77°C. The data further showed that May 2022 was the fifth warmest month with average temperature since 1961. The highest mean temperature was 32.09°C recorded in 2000. The average maximum (daytime) temperature at country-level was 38.53°C, being 2.21°C warmer than average of 36.33°C. The night time (minimum) temperature was 23.32°C, being 2.17°C warmer than country-average of 21.15 °C, which stands as fifth warmest night temperature in May since 1961. The ever warmest night temperature in May was 24.47°C recorded in 2000. The hottest day of the month was at Jacobabad when it recorded 51°C temperature on 14 May, 2022 while the coldest temperature of 3.0°C of the month was recorded at Kalam (KP) on 5th and 24 May, 2022. Similarly on regional scale, May 2022 stood in first 10th warmest month in all regions i.e. AJK with 23.88°C, Balochistan with 30.76°C, GB with 21.36°C, KP with 27.72°C, Punjab with 33.77°C and Sindh with 34.76°C.