LAHORE: Rain over upper parts of the country and catchments of eastern rivers swelled them to some extent on Tuesday and the Met Office forecast more monsoon activity in the country in the next 48 hours.

It remained cloudy to partly cloudy in Lahore, where heavy rain had inundated low-lying areas on Monday night. The maximum temperature was a tolerable 33 degrees Celsius.

According to the Flood Forecasting Bureau (FFB), river Kabul at Nowshera was in medium flood and other major rivers were flowing normally.

It forecast low to medium flood in river Jhelum at Mangla with 80,000 to 120,000 cusecs in the next 24 hours due to rain over its upper and lower catchments. Low flood was also expected in river Chenab at Marala with 90,000 to 130,000 cusecs.

The Met department reported heavy to moderate rain in different parts of the country on Tuesday. Islamabad received 64mm, Dera Ghazi Khan 42mm, Rawlakot 32mm, Murree and Bahawalpur 35mm, Kot Addu 29mm, Kakul 20mm and Muzaffarabad 22mm.

The rainfall figure for the last 24 hours is: Islamabad (Golra 156mm, Bokra 117mm, Saidpur 97mm, Zero Point 71mm) Lahore (Jail Road 63mm), Okara 62mm, Multan 59mm, Toba Tek Singh 48mm, Faisalabad 45mm, Risalpur 40mm, Bahawalnagar and Malamjaba 38mm, Joharabad 33mm, Sahiwal and Layyah 24mm, Muzaffarabad and Kakul 23mm and Dera Ismail Khan 21mm.

The FFB expected scattered thunderstorm and rain with isolated moderate to heavy falls at one or two places over upper catchments of rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej along with upper Punjab in the next 24 hours. Medium flood was expected in the tributaries of rivers Ravi and Chenab in Sialkot region.

It forecast widespread rain-thundershower in Hazara, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan divisions, Islamabad and Kashmir. Scattered rain-thundershower is expected in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan and Dera Ismail Khan) and Punjab (Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Bahawalpur and Multan divisions), while isolated rain is likely in Malakand, Zhob, Sibi, Quetta, Sukkur, Larkana and Hyderabad divisions. Isolated heavy falls was also expected in Rawalpindi-Islamabad, Lahore, Gujranwala and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions.

The FFB forecast urban flooding in Lahore, Gujranwala and Sialkot in the next 48 hours.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2015

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