05 July 2004	Monday	16 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, July 4: The plains of the Punjab continued to experience extremely hot and sultry weather for the seventh day running on Sunday with the Met office seeing no chances of any major rain anywhere in the country during the next 24 hours.

In Lahore, the increased inflow of moisture and the high temperature created a great deal of inconvenience for the people. Repeated power breakdowns added to their miseries almost the entire day.

The day's maximum temperature was 37.2 degrees C with 69 per cent humidity in the morning and 51 per cent in the evening. Previous night's minimum temperature was 28.7 degrees C giving no relief to people.

According to the chief meteorologist, the Punjab was receiving moisture from the Arabian Sea but it was not enough to cause rain. He said the country was facing dry conditions due to the pre-monsoon rains in the last fortnight of June.

The present hot spell would generate a low pressure necessary for pulling in the monsoon current, he said. He said some cities might get light rain because of local development, and there was no chance of the real monsoon rain during the next 24 hours.