31 July 2004	Saturday	13 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

LAHORE, July 30: Heavy rain on Friday morning broke over two weeks long spell of hot and humid conditions in the provincial metropolis and several other parts of the province.

Backed by strong winds, the rain started at around 9:30am and continued till around 11am, inundating the low-lying areas like Laxmi Chowk, Thornton, Empress, Cooper, Park Lane, Nabha and Kashmir roads, GPO Chowk on The Mall, Ram Gali, Touheed Park, Shah Kamal, Misri Shah, Aik Moria Pul, Mustafababd and Chauburji Chowk.

Thornton and Nabha roads were under water late in the evening. Wasa staff were trying to pump out rainwater from northern Lahore's Amir and Gujja Pir roads, Makhanpura and Shamshad Park.

The Met office recorded 60 mm of rain which brought down mercury, ridding the people of oppressive conditions. Reports of power breakdowns and trippings were received from all parts of Lahore which also affected Wasa's disposal operation.

A Wasa spokesman said it took the agency six hours to pump out rainwater through 12 big and 60 small disposal stations from the city. "Had there been no power breakdowns and trippings, the rainwater could have been drained out in four hours," he said and added, Choburji Chowk was cleared in record one hour.

APP ADDS: The cloudburst also inundated posh localities like Gulberg, Shah Jamal and Iqbal Town. Besides the Walled City, Krishan Nagar, Sanda Road, Angoori Bagh, Baghbanpura, Multan Road and Ferozepur Road from Chungi Amar Sadhu to Bank Stop were also affected.

Motorists faced problems as many were seen pushing their vehicles stuck in knee-deep water. Meawhile, upper catchment areas of all major rivers of the country received rain along with Gujranwala, Kohat and Rawalpindi divisions.

According to a Met office report, a monsoon low originating from the Bay of Bengal lies over central Madhya Pradesh while a westerly lies over north of Kashmir. A seasonal low lies over eastern Balochistan and adjoining area with a strong moist south-westerly monsoon current reaching Punjab.

This weather pattern is likely to cause rain of light to moderate intensity over the upper catchment areas of all the major rivers along with Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Kohat and D.I. Khan divisions, while isolated rainfall of light intensity may occur over D.G. Khan and Bahawalpur divisions.