ISLAMABAD: As the weather shifts to warm days and cooler nights, the winds too are changing direction from the cold north-west to the warmer south-east.

Strong winds arrived from the northwest between Friday and Saturday, dropping temperatures across the northern parts of the country including Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

A clash between western and eastern winds over the north of the country brought 31 millimetres of rainfall in Mangla, 21mm in Sialkot, 18mm in Gujrat, 25mm in Parachinar and 16mm in Peshawar city.

Temperatures fell to 15°C at night in Murree and the highest temperature in the town was 29°C. Rainfall in Lahore brought the daytime temperature down to 29°C while the minimum temperature was 23°C.

The temperature rose to 34°C during the day in Islamabad and fell to 21°C at night.

With the end of the Badhon month in the local calendar, humidity is expected to decline leading to dryness in the air ahead of winter.

As the weather pattern changes, cloud-bearing winds have started travelling from the Arabian Sea to the east and northeast into India, instead of winds coming from the Bay of Bengal.

The Met Office has said there is currently a depression over southwest Madhya Pradesh which is likely to move northwards initially, but the system has started to move further into north and northeast India and less likely to bring heavy rain to Pakistan.

At the same time, a shallow westerly wave is affecting upper parts of the country, along with moist easterly currents that are penetrating north-eastern parts of the country.

As a result, rain-thundershowers with strong winds are expected in parts of the twin cities, along with isolated heavy rainfall in the Gujranwala and Lahore divisions and Kashmir.

The weather is expected to be dry in most plain areas in the country. The Met Office has said the summer monsoon weather system has diminished during the first fortnight of September, and rain will be scarce during the rest of the month.

Rainfall is expected to remain slightly below normal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Balochistan, central and lower Punjab and Sindh in October and November as well.

However the mountainous regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and upper KP are likely to receive normal precipitation in October and November.

The melting of snow and glaciers will also decline as the temperatures fall, and the contribution of water from these sources to the Indus River will be reduced as well.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2018