KARACHI: The mercury dropped to minus one degree centigrade in many parts of Sindh on Wednesday amid a persistent cold wave which has gripped the province, including its capital, for the past few days.

The stinging cold coupled with dry northwesterly winds kept Karachiites indoors for most part of the day as the city’s meteorological office warned of similar weather conditions prevailing for the next couple of days.

It said the cold continental winds coming from Kalat-Quetta direction were blowing at a speed of up to 30 knots — a little over 55 kilometres per hour — at 2pm as against their normal speed which ranged between 10 and 20 knots.

It said the minimum temperature recorded in the city on Wednesday was 6.5 degrees centigrade and the maximum temperature was recorded at 21 degrees centigrade.

Humidity — a measure of moisture in the air — was 11 per cent.

It said the weather on Thursday was expected to be cold at night and hazy in the morning and the minimum temperature was expected to range between six and eight degrees centigrade.

About weather in the rest of the province, the Met Office said that at least three towns — Moenjodaro and Jacobabad in the northern part of the province and Chhor that borders with India in the southeastern region of the province — experienced subzero temperatures.

The minimum temperature recorded in Moenjodaro on Wednesday was minus one degree centigrade and maximum was 18 degrees centigrade. The minimum temperature in Jacobabad was minus one and maximum was 19.5 degrees centigrade. The minimum temperature recorded in Chhor was minus one and maximum was 22 degrees centigrade. The minimum and maximum temperatures in Dadu were 0.7 degrees centigrade and 18.2 degrees centigrade, respectively, said the Met Office.

It said the minimum and maximum temperatures recorded in centigrade in different parts of the province on Wednesday were: Larkana (1.5 and 19); Mithi (1.3 and 20.5); Sukkur (2 and 18); Nawabshah (2.5 and 19.5); Padidan (3.5 and 18); Rohri (4 and 17.5); Badin (4 and 19); Thatta (5 and 19) and Hyderabad (6.5 and 18.5).

Balochistan hill town of Kalat located around a couple of hundred kilometers from the city, and Quetta became the coldest places in the country with minimum temperature recorded at minus 13 degrees centigrade, it said.

Meanwhile, the provincial education department announced late on Wednesday evening that all government and private schools and colleges would remain closed in the province from Jan 2 to 8 because of a the persisting cold wave.

All schools had reopened on Wednesday after the end of the winter vacation as per the schedule set by the steering committee but later some school organisations made an appeal to the education department to extend vacations in view of the extreme cold which was expected to continue for several more days.

Sharafuz Zaman of the Private School Management Association said that extension in vacations would help protect children from falling ill due to going outside in extreme cold.

“Primary schoolchildren between the ages of three to 12 have to be protected especially because their uniforms are not designed for such weather. Therefore, I urge the government to extend the vacation,” he had said.

But Khalid Shah of All Private Schools Management had disagreed with him and said their schools were not raising the demand for extension in vacation because children had already missed too many school days due to other unpredictable disturbances in the city.

“I’ll suggest we encourage our children to brave the weather. There was a 30 to 40pc attendance in schools today and it is hoped it will be better tomorrow,” he had added.

A spokesman for the Education Minister Nisar Khuhro had earlier said the department had no such plan to extend the vacation but it was later announced the minister thought the request for extension was pretty genuine. “Therefore, all public and private schools and colleges in Sindh will remain closed from Jan 2 to 8 and reopen on Thursday, Jan 9,” said the official announcement.

Combating cold

Health experts have advised warm clothes and plenty of intake of water and fluids to cope with the prevailing dry and cold weather.

Dr Seemin Jamali, joint director of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, said on Wednesday the city was experiencing ‘unprecedented cold’, which required people to take unconventional measures to safeguard themselves form contracting diseases.

“Don’t expose yourself especially your children even to sunlight, which too is mixed with chilly winds; sleep with layers of warm clothing and use heater if possible; and drink a good intake of water and juices to get the desired moisture to cope with the dry weather,” she said.