Rain adds to chill

LAHORE:Continuous light rain brought down mercury further in the provincial capital here on Thursday while Met officials predicted more rains during the next 24 hours.

The rain, which started on Thursday morning continued till night and kept the district administration and officials of Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) on their toes to clear the rainwater. The city localities where rain occurred included Township, Garden Town, Model Town, Johar Town, Lakshmi Chowk, Airport and adjoining localities, Gulberg, Mughalpura, Nishter Town, Farrukhabad, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Iqbal Town, Walled City, Samanabad, Davis Road, Shahdara, Allama Iqbal Road, garden Town, Faisal Town, Kahna and etc. During the rain, Managing Director Wasa Ghafran Ahmed monitored the situation of the city and also visited several city areas including disposal stations to ensure they were working. Wasa’s MD Ghafran Ahmed also visited sore points of the city and passed necessary directions to the field staff. He said that all officers and staff were active in the field and so far every road was cleared from rainwater. He said officers and staff of Wasa will remain in the field till 100% clearance of rainwater. During the rain, Wasa paid special attention on city’s underpasses and 22 sore points and kept them clear. Usually rainwater accumulated in underpasses and 22 sore points, which resulted in traffic jams. However, more rain/snow over the mountains was expected in Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and adjoining areas while dense foggy conditions were likely to prevail over the plain areas of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and upper Sindh. Rainfall was recorded in several cities of the country including Turbat, Kalat, Quetta, Panjgur, Khuzdar, Dalbandin, Barkhan, Cherat, Malam Jabba, Peshawar, Kalam, Takht Bai, Parachinar, Dir, Pattan, Saidu Sharif, Bannu, Balakot, Joharabad, Noorpur Thal, Hafizabad, Sargodha, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Khanewal, Kot Addu, Multan, Toba Tek Singh, Sahiwal, Okara, Jhang, Faisalabad, Mangla, Jhelum, Attock, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bhakkar , Layyah, Chakwal, Sialkot, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Rawalakot while snowfall was witnessed at Malam Jabba, Kalam and Murree.

Thursday’s lowest minimum temperature was recorded at Leh where mercury dropped down to -11°C while in Lahore it was 4.8°C and maximum was 16°C.