LAHORE: Lahore and several other cities in Punjab and Sindh received the first typical “monsoon-style” rain of the current season on Wednesday, ridding people of extremely muggy weather of the past few days.

The Met department said rain was caused by a widespread monsoon low that travelled from the Bay of Bengal to northwest Madhya Pradesh and adjoining Rajasthan (India).

In Lahore, rain started around noon, immediately washing away the energy-sapping mugginess prevailing all over the city. Rain was heavy on the southern side of the city covering localities such as Johar Town, Model Town and Gulberg.

It also rained over the rest of the city, moderately or lightly, till late afternoon, making weather pleasant and giving the impression of a typical monsoon atmosphere.

The Flood Forecasting Division (FFD) said the monsoon low over Indian Rajasthan was widespread and it caused rain over the plain areas of Punjab and Sindh.

Chorr received 36mm of rain, Islamkot 33mm, Mirpurkhas 20mm, Mitthi 12mm, Badin 8mm, Jhang 26mm and Kasur 17mm. The Met office in Lahore recorded 8mm of rain at the airport and 5mm at its Jail Road office. There was no measurement of heavy rain over the southern Lahore because of the absence of any observatory there.

The Met department said the monsoon low was expected to persist over the next four days, generating typical monsoon-style rain that could be medium to light and intermittent over the plain areas of Punjab, Sindh, upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Kashmir.

FFD Director Ajmal Shad said there were least chances of any flood-generating rain over the upper catchments of the rivers.

The FFD said all major rivers were flowing in the state of their normal flow. Low to medium flows were expected in the nullahs of the river Ravi (Deg, Basantar and Bein) during the next 24 hours (Thursday). Further there was a chance of increase in the flow of hill torrents of Dera Ghazi Khan division on Aug 27 and 28.

Sharp peaks of medium to high flood level were expected in the river Jhelum at Mangla during the week.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2016