LAHORE: Dust storms in many cities, including Lahore, broke the spell of a severe heat wave in northeastern Punjab on Friday evening.

The storms were reportedly coupled with light rain in some cities in northeastern Punjab.

In Lahore, the wind carried coolness of a westerly wave, which the Met Office said was going to generate light rain and dust storms over upper parts of the country, including northeastern Punjab, from Saturday to Monday, providing relief against the severe heat wave.

The moderate westerly wave is already giving light rain over upper parts of the country for the past two days. The impact was immediate as the storm swept away intense heat from the city.

The Met Office said the westerly wave would lower temperatures during the day by three to five degrees Celsius in plain areas of the country, which are being directly hit by the heat wave -- with many cities experiencing record-breaking highest maximum temperatures.

The department forecast dust-thunderstorm/rain with gusty winds at scattered places in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan divisions), Rawalpindi, Sargodha divisions, Islamabad, Fata, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan and at isolated places in Quetta, Zhob, Gujranwala, Lahore, Faisalabad divisions in the next 24 hours.

Hot and dry weather is expected elsewhere in the country.

On Friday, it remained hot and dry in most parts of the country. However, dust-thunderstorm/rain occurred at scattered places in Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar divisions and Kashmir, and at isolated places in Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sargodha divisions, upper Fata and Gilgit-Baltistan. Very hot weather prevailed in central/south Punjab, Sindh and south Balochistan.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2017