18 January 2004	Sunday	25 Ziqa'ad 1424

LAHORE, Jan 17: The westerly system on Saturday gave first widespread winter showers of this season in the Northern Areas and several cities of the NWFP, Kashmir, upper Punjab and northern parts of Balochistan , halting what the local Met office said the onslaught of the fast approaching summer.

The westerly disturbances also caused snowfall over the hills in the Northern Areas of the country, including Malamjabba, Astore and Skardu.

"Today's rains have brought back the winter touch, heading off the (feeling of) prolonged summer," chief meteorologist in Lahore Shaukat Awan told Dawn. He said it would take the sun at least one week to raise the temperatures to the pre-rain levels.

The westerly system, according to Mr Awan, was concentrated in the country's northern parts. "This is precisely why it had given rains mostly in the northern parts."

He said the westerly system had approached from Afghanistan on Friday. "Another secondary westerly wave, currently located over the central Saudi Arabia, is also moving towards Pakistan and is expected to cause rainfall in Sindh and Balochistan over the next two days," he said.

In the provincial capital, the light rain began quite late on Friday night and continued intermittently till the next evening, bringing down the maximum temperature on Saturday to 14.2 degrees Celsius from the previous day's 21.5 degrees.

Unusual for January, the Mercury had risen to 24 degrees, the maximum temperature during this winter, on Thursday giving the feeling of an early summer.

"Temperature must remain below 20 degrees in January being the peak winter month," Mr Awan said. "We are going to have colder days over the next one week even if does not rain."

The sky remained overcast throughout the day after several pleasant, sunny days. Total rainfall in the city recorded by the Met office was, however, just 2mm. Humidity recorded in the morning and evening was 88 per cent.

Though the rain brought back the chill in the air, it also led to a traffic confusion in the city. Long traffic jams were experienced in different parts of the city, especially during the peak hours.

Besides Lahore, the other cities of the Punjab hit by the rain included Islamabad (2mm), Jhelum (2mm), Sialkot (10mm), Faisalabad (2mm), and Mandi Bahauddin (3mm).According to the Met office, Garhidupata had received 39mm of rain, Muzzafarabad 26mm, Kotli 24mm, Darosh 17mm, Balakot and Kakul 15mm, Saidu Sharif and Malamjabba 13mm, Peshawar 40mm, Zhob 6mm, Astore 3mm, and Parachinar 3mm.

The current rains are said to be beneficial for the Rabi crops while the snowfall over the hilly areas would ensure water availability for the summer harvest.

The Met office has forecast scattered rain along with thunderstorm in the Punjab capital and adjoining cities for Sunday.