LAHORE: The much-awaited rains brought temperatures down by five to seven degrees Celsius in some parts of the country on Wednesday and electricity demand by almost 2,500MW, reducing nationwide loadshedding by two to three hours.

The planners at the National Power Control Centre said the demand had come down to 20,500MW by the evening from 24,000MW a day before at the same time. Although the situation was still not fully under control, it improved a bit.

Megawatt deficiency ‘turns acute’

“The situation can improve further if it rains in big cities like Lahore in the next 24 hours and temperature drops further,” said an official. Lahore’s temperature came down to 33 degree Celsius. The Lahore Electric Supply Company alone counts for 30 per cent of the national demand. If some relief comes from it, things should be in control, he hoped.

The generation figure was still a little less than 15,000MW, leaving a deficit of more than 5,500MW and forcing almost 10 hours of loadshedding in major cities and up to 14 hours in rural areas.

Meanwhile, the rain in upper parts of Pakistan and north-eastern Punjab that was very heavy in Sialkot finally ended the prolonged heat spell in the country.

Parts of Lahore around Mughalpura and beyond received rain and it drizzled in the rest of the city. A strong wind throughout the day kept weather pleasant and lowered the maximum temperature to 33.5 degrees Celsius from Tuesday’s 38 degrees.

And the Met department forecast chances of heavy rain in Lahore and upper parts of the province in 48 hours because of a feeble trough of a westerly wave over Kashmir and very strong moist monsoon current that was penetrating Kashmir up to 7,000 feet.

The maximum temperature also dropped by five to eight degrees Celsius in other cities where it rained.

According to the Met department, Sialkot Cantonment received 102mm of rain, Balakot 61, Sialkot Airport 48, Kohat 45, Mangla 46, Jhelum 36, Kotli 35, Islamabad Zero Point 34, Murree 28, Muzaffarabad 25, Rawalakot 23, Gujranwala 18, Malamjabba 16, Saidu Sharif 13, Dir 12, Bannu and Islamabad Airport 8 (each), Gujrat 7, Pattan 4, Kakul 3 and Lahore Airport and Garhi Dupatta 2mm each.

It forecast fairly widespread thunderstorm/rain with gusty winds over Fata (with isolated moderate to heavy falls), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (with isolated heavy falls over Bannu, Kohat, Peshawar and Hazara divisions), northern Punjab (with isolated heavy falls over Sahiwal, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Rawalpindi divisions and Islamabad), Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir (with scattered relative heavy to heavy falls and a few very heavy rainfalls) in 24 hours.

Further, scattered dust thunderstorm/rain with gusty winds may come about over southern Punjab (with isolated heavy falls over Bahawalpur division), Sindh (with isolated heavy falls over Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad and Karachi divisions), southern and north-eastern Balochistan (with isolated heavy falls over Kalat division).

Published in Dawn, July 17th , 2014