Rain, gusty winds forecast today

LAHORE

Hot and humid weather continued to prevail in the provincial metropolis on Monday while for Tuesday (today), Met officials predicted similar weather conditions with chances of rain.

Met officials said humidity level in the city was 51 percent while maximum temperature was 34°C. They said low pressure lies over central parts of the country with its trough extending south-eastward. They added that moderate moist currents from Arabian Sea are penetrating upper parts of the country and likely to continue during next three to four days.

A fresh westerly wave is likely to enter upper parts of the country on Tuesday (evening/night) and may persist till Wednesday, Met officials said and predicted that rain-thundershower with strong gusty winds is expected at scattered places in Kashmir, Hazara, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodha divisions and Islamabad, while at isolated places in Malakand, Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan divisions and Gilgit-Baltistan. Weather will remain hot and dry elsewhere in the country.

Rain was recorded in various cities, including Chakwal, Murree, Gujrat, Dir and Balakot, Malamjaba, Garhi Dupatta, Rawalakot and Kotli.

Met office in its weekly weather warning said that the El Niño phenomenon had weakened and La Niña was favoured to develop during the summer 2016.

Prevailing oceanic and atmospheric conditions are giving indications of good summer monsoon rainfall in the country, they said, adding monsoon rainfall was likely to be 10-20% above normal over the country, averaged for three months.

They said that more than average rainfall is expected over Punjab, KP, Sindh, AJK and Northeast Balochistan. They said some extreme rainfall events were likely to occur in the catchment areas of major rivers and other parts of the country which may cause floods. They maintained that there was a high probability of heavy downpour which may generate flash flooding along Suleman Range.

Some heavy downpour events may produce urban flooding in big cities and some strong incursions of monsoon currents, coupled with high temperature, may trigger glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF), landslides and flash floods in Upper KP and GB.