KARACHI, Jan 2: The city on Wednesday remained in the grip of a prolonged spell of cold weather that meteorologists say will continue for a week.

According to the Met Office, the minimum temperature on Wednesday was nine degrees centigrade while the maximum temperature remained 11 degrees centigrade. Humidity, or the amount of moisture in the air, was recorded to be 46 per cent.

The chief meteorologist, Arif Mehmood, however, insisted that Karachi was not as cold as it was made out to be. "After all, temperatures drop to eight or nine degrees centigrade every winter.

And in January 1934 the thermometer fell to zero. The current cold weather spell will soon be followed by a rise in temperature and blooming of flowers," he said. Mr Mehmood argued that the current spell of cold weather was longer than previous years.

"For instance, the minimum temperature in January used to be over 15 degrees centigrade. But this time it did not rise above 10 degrees centigrade," he said. Recalling that on Feb 11, 1950, the minimum temperature was three degrees centigrade, the chief meteorologist said that the average minimum temperature of the past 30 years in February was 7.7 degrees centigrade.

According to the Met Office forecast, the minimum temperature on Thursday will range between 9 and 11°C.