LAHORE: Heavy rain lashed different parts of the country, including Balochistan and Sindh, in the first spell of the monsoon that left Karachi roads flooded and most localities without electricity on Tuesday.

The Pakistan Meteorolo­gical Department reported 32.4 millimetres — a little over 1.27 inches — of rainfall in Karachi, which was enough to cause 200 of the KE’s over 1,400 feeders to trip. A large number of localities remained without electricity for a long time.

The PMD forecast more rain in Karachi on Wednesday.

The department’s Flood Forecas­ting Division said the Kabul River was in low flood whereas all other major rivers were in below flood level.

It said a trough of westerly wave over northeast Afghanistan lay over Kashmir and adjoining areas. Moist monsoon current from the Bay of Bengal was penetrating upper parts of the country up to 3,000 feet. And a monsoon low (special rain-generating system) lies over the north-west Bay of Bengal.

In view of this, it said, scattered thunder showers of moderate intensity with isolated heavy falls and one or two heavy falls were expected over the upper catchments of all the major rivers along with Quetta, Zhob, Sibi, Kalat, Malakand, Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Rawalpindi, Guj­r­a­­n­wala, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad and Lahore divisions from July 2. Isolated thunder shower is also expected over Sindh.

Since one or two heavy falls were expected from July 2, the river flows might increase from the end of the week, the Met department said.

It said the main focus of the westerly wave that was at present affecting upper parts of the country had been over Balochistan, Sindh and central Punjab for the past two days.

On Tuesday, Sibi received 63mm of rain, Kalat 8mm, Shaheed Benazir­abad 40mm, Rohri 26mm, Larkana 10mm, Faisalabad 49mm, Joharabad 30mm, Khanpur 28mm, Okara 25mm, Murree 19mm, Lahore (city 14mm, airport 1mm), Sahiwal, Sargodha and Mianwali 13mm each, Bahawalnagar 10mm, Noorpurthal 8mm, Chakwal 7mm, Bhakkar 6mm, Ma­lam­jabba 25mm, Balakot and Saidu Sharif 16mm each, Kakul 15mm, Para­chinar 9mm and Muzaffarabad 6mm.

The Met department forecast that over the next 24 hours there might be rain/dust-thunder shower with isolated heavy falls accompanied by strong gusty winds at scattered places in Quetta, Zhob, Kalat, Sibi, Naseerabad, Makran, Sukkur, Larkana, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Rawalpindi, Gujran­wala, Lahore, Sargodha, Faisalabad and Sahiwal divisions, Fata, Islam­abad and Kashmir, while at isolated places in Mala­­­kand, Hazara, Pesha­war, Kohat, Mardan, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Shaheed Benazirabad, Karachi, Bahawalpur, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016