LAHORE: A sharp peak of high-to-very-high flood in the river Jhelum at Mangla, and medium-to-high flood is expected in the river Chenab on Wednesday (today) as rain, very heavy at places, lashed several cities in the country and catchments of the two eastern rivers on Tuesday.

The Flood Forecasting Division said the two rivers at these places would remain in high flood till Thursday. Storm water channels of the rivers Chenab and Ravi are also expected to be in medium-to-high flood during these two days.

It said the current spell of rains would be over on or after July 13 (Thursday).

The Met department said rain-thunderstorm (with isolated heavy falls) occurred at a number of places in Gujranwala, Rawalpindi divisions, Islamabad and Kashmir, while at isolated places in Lahore, Malakand, Hazara, Mardan, Zhob, Quetta and Karachi divisions.

Lahore received scattered rain that was heavy around the airport and on the eastern side of the city. Earlier, it also rained in downtown. It remained almost dry in the western and southern sides of the city.

The department said Azad Kashmir was the centre of the rainfall activity being generated by a strong westerly wave and moist monsoon current from the Arabian Sea.

Rawalakot in Azad Kashmir recorded 98mm of rain, Kotli 26mm, Muzaffarabad 24mm, Garhi Dupatta 13mm, Sialkot in Punjab received 65mm of rain, Islamabad 64mm, Gujranwala 51mm, Rawalpindi 34mm, Murree 31mm, Lahore (city) 18mm, Kamra 10mm, Gujrat 9mm, Mangla, Jhelum 2mm each.

Risalpur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded 40mm, Lower Dir 36mm, Kakul 21mm, Malamjabba 17mm, Balakot 11mm and Saidu Sharif recorded 4mm of rain.

Rain-thunderstorm with isolated heavy-to-very-heavy fall is expected at a number of places in upper Punjab (Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Lahore, Faisalabad divisions), Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata), Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Kashmir in the next 24 hours.

Rain-thunderstorm with isolated heavy fall is expected at scattered places in southern Punjab (Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal divisions), Zhob, Kalat divisions and Gilgit-Baltistan. Light rain/drizzle is also expected at a few places along Sindh coast.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2017