LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: It remained very hot and dry in the plains of the country on Wednesday which was the hottest day of the season in Lahore, and the Met department announced pre-monsoon rains from Saturday.

“A break against the prolonged spell of heat wave is finally there with pre-monsoon rains during the Eid holidays,” a meteorologist said.

Lahore’s maximum temperature on Wednesday was 45 degrees Celsius, the highest of the season so far. The maximum temperature in Sargodha was 45 degrees Celsius and Faisalabad 43 degrees Celsius. Sibbi was the hottest city in the country with 50 degrees Celsius maximum temperature. It was followed by Noorpur Thal and Bhakkar 49, Jacobabad 48, Dadu, Mianwali and Dera Ismail Khan 47.

Wednesday was the hottest day of season in Lahore

Meanwhile, the Met department announced that pre-monsoon rains are likely to start from Saturday in Pakistan. Moist currents will start to penetrate on Friday and rain-thundershower is expected in the most parts of the country.

Rain-thundershower with gusty winds/dust storm is expected at scattered places in Islamabad, upper Punjab (Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodha, Faisalabad divisions), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Fata and Kashmir, while at isolated places in Sahiwal division during Eid days.

The mercury level is expected to move up further on Thursday (today), but it will help create a vacuum like situation over the plains of Punjab and northern India.

“These conditions invite winds from the Bay of Bengal which result in rainfall,” said an official of the met office. However, under the impact of localised conditions rain-thundershower with gusty winds is expected at isolated places in Kashmir and its adjoining hilly areas on Thursday and Friday.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has issued the seasonal outlook for Pakistan summer monsoon 2018 based on the global, regional and local meteorological indicators.

The PMD report said that it is evident from the model output that monsoon which is from July to September is expected to be more active during the first half than the second one.

The salient features of the report highlight northern Pakistan is expected to face normal to slightly above normal rainfall during first half of the season and below normal during second half.

In southern Pakistan, rainfall is expected to remain near normal during first half of the season, and largely below normal during the second half.

The PMD has said that the prevailing temperatures and trend in Pakistan indicate high probability of few ‘extreme rainfalls’ in Punjab and there are chances of glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in Gilgit-Baltistan/Chitral during monsoon season.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2018