LAHORE: The first rainfall of the season is expected to dip mercury as it turned weather a bit chilly in Lahore and other cities of Punjab on Tuesday.

The Met Office forecast partly cloudy with chances of light rain associated with gusty winds in Lahore during the next 24 hours (Wednesday).

It recorded maximum temperatures at 21 degrees Celsius and the minimum 09 degrees Celsius in Lahore while predicting more rain at isolated places in Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Malakand and Hazara divisions besides Islamabad, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan with snowfall over the hills during the next 24 hours.

Power supply to many areas disrupted for hours

It said a western disturbance, affecting upper parts of the country, might move in northeasterly direction during the next 12 hours.

There has been moderate to heavy rainfall in Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Lodhran, Toba Tek Singh, Attock and Jhang since Monday evening. Rain with snowfall was recorded at Charsadda, Swat, Kalam, Malam Jabba, Mingora and Nowshehra, in parts of Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.

Although people have been enjoying gentle breeze and warmth of sunshine for the last many days, the general perception was that further delay in proper rain may allow summer to set in earlier than expected. Rain in winter is also considered propitious, for it is believed to rid people of viral infections associated with dust and dry weather.

But there is an obvious downside too and that came in the form of power suspension on Tuesday evening. Electricity supply suffered in many parts of the city as more than 100 feeders tripped plunging several areas into darkness. Besides, there were traffic snarl-ups at many places as vehicles slowed down during intermittent rain.

The rain was heavy enough to fill the places dug up in the city due to the Orange Line project and some other ongoing works. It disrupted work at all such places and workers had to scurry for shelter as had pedestrians and those on two-wheelers.

There were reports of light to moderate rain continuing in many parts of the city till the filing of this report.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2016