LAHORE: An estimated three-day spell of monsoon rain is beginning in the country from Thursday (today), providing relief against the mugginess making life difficult in the plains for the past around one week.

According to the Met department, the spell will be generated by a trough of westerly wave over north of the country and moist current from the Arabian Sea.

A monsoon depression that developed over the Bay of Bengal moved to Indian Chattisgarh on Tuesday and weakened to a well marked low pressure. It lay over East Madhya Pradesh, pushing a lot of moisture into Pakistan.

The Met department said rain would be scattered on Thursday but widespread on Friday and Saturday.

For Thursday, it forecast scattered dust thunderstorm/rain with gusty winds and a few heavy falls over Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Hazara divisions, Islamabad, Kashmir, southern and northeastern Sindh. Isolated dust thunderstorm/rain can occur over Makran, Kalat, Quetta, DI Khan, Bannu, Kohat, Peshawar, Malakand divisions, Fata and Northwestern Sindh.

There are chances of hailstorm at a few places.

For Friday and Saturday, the department forecast fairly widespread thunderstorm/rain with gusty winds over Punjab (with isolated heavy falls over Sahiwal, Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi divisions and Islamabad), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (with isolated heavy falls over Malakand and Hazara divisions), Fata (with a few heavy falls), Kashmir (with isolated heavy falls) and Sindh (with isolated heavy falls over southern parts).

Scattered dust thunderstorm/rain may come about over Southern and Northeastern Balochistan (with isolated heavy falls over Kalat division). Meanwhile, except for a few places, weather remained clear and sultry almost everywhere in the country. In Lahore the maximum temperature was 38 degrees Celsius but humidity was 66 per cent in the morning and 57 per cent in the evening.

It remained partly cloudy and it drizzled in the downtown in the late afternoon, enhancing mugginess in the rest of the city.

The Met office reported Sialkot Cantt received 63mm of rain, Kotli 22, Murree 21, Rawalakot 14, Chakwal 10 and Sialkot airport 5.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2014