ISLAMABAD: The strong westerly wave that brought rains and snowfall across the country will move out of Pakistan towards northern India and Nepal by Friday noon.

However, intermittent rains with snowfall will continue at isolated places, including Murree and Islamabad, up to Friday evening.

The active rains during the last three days brought the maximum and the minimum temperatures closer in the federal capital.

The daytime temperature in Islamabad was 12 degrees Centigrade and the night time temperature 10 degrees.

“This is mainly because the current wave of clouds has been supported by warm winds coming from the Arabian Sea. This is also the reason Murree received a limited amount of snowfall,” said an official of the Met Office.

Due to the warm clouds, Murree received a significant amount of 42mm rainfall against only two inches of snow on Thursday.

At the same time, Rawalpindi received 41mm, Jhelum 34mm, Mangla 32mm, Islamabad 30mm and Lahore 28mm rainfall.

The highest amount of rainfall across the country was recorded in Kotli (77 mm) followed by Rawlakot 48mm, Muzaffarabad 37mm, Balakot 35mm, Kakul 34mm and Lower Dir 27mm.

Isolated rains with snowfall over the hills are expected at a few places in Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Malakand division. The heaviest snowfall of 20 inches was recorded in Kalam, 10 inches in Malamjabba and eight inches in Astore.

The weather condition will be mainly dry but cold in Balochistan, Sindh, the plain areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and the weekends will be bright and sunny.

Due to the inclement weather across the country, four flights were cancelled at Benazir Bhutto International Airport on Thursday. An official said PK-607 to Gilgit, PK-451 to Skardu, PK-583 to Rahimyar Khan and NL-128 to Karachi were cancelled. However, other national and international flights operated but with a slight delay.

The rains exposed the working of the civic agencies in Rawalpindi, particularly those involved in the maintenance of roads, drains and sanitation.

Reports of water logging and choking of drains were received from different parts of the garrison city throughout the day. Heaps of garbage were seen on each and every street and road in the cantonment areas. On the main roads, the rain created slushy mess and problems for the road users. Mud and puddles made the roads slippery, especially for motorcyclists.

Many areas in the city and cantonment remained without electricity for hours that also disrupted the flow of traffic as signals went off.

There were also reports of low gas pressure in many areas of the city and cantonment.

In Murree and nearby areas, after heavy snowfall during the previous week a new spell started on Thursday. About six inches snow had fallen in the hilly town when this report was filed on Thursday evening with more snowfall forecast by Met Office till Friday night.

A large number of tourists thronged the hill station to witness the snowfall.

The traffic police claimed to have made proper arrangements for the smooth flow of vehicles. However, the police advised the tourists not to visit Murree after 8pm and come only in properly maintained vehicles to avoid any problems.

Machinery was ready to remove snow from the highways and salt was also being put on the roads to make them less slippery.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2017