ISLAMABAD: Galiyat region received its first snowfall of the winter season with the Met Office predicting more rain and snowfall in the coming days.

Clouds that entered the country from the West on Sunday brought rain at scattered places in Punjab, Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, while at isolated places in upper Sindh and Balochistan.

However, as the current system moves towards the north east, Tuesday is likely to be dry over most of the Potohar region and central Punjab.

At the same time, another system has developed in northern Afghanistan which may bring Siberian winds and moist westerly winds from Central Asia.

The Met Office has predicted that the system might bring more rain-thunderstorm with snowfall over the hills and hailstorm on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Since the La Nina and other global patterns were normal, rainfall too is expected to be normal in December,” said an official of the Met Office, who anticipated that some areas, including Islamabad, were likely to receive higher than normal rainfall this month.

The average rainfall in December in Islamabad region used to be around 35mm, whereas Zero Point has already received over 22mm and Saidpur around 18mm rain.

“After Wednesday and Thursday’s rain, another wet spell is expected in the last 10 days of the month,” the official added.

Regular rainfall in the coming weeks will dissipate chances of dense fog across the country.

The recent rain in northern Punjab has significantly brought down mercury with daytime temperature declining from 23 degrees Celsius to 13 degrees Celsius in Islamabad.

Meanwhile, the average supply of gas in Islamabad and Rawalpindi was 235 million cubic feet daily (MMCFD) each, whereas around 50-60 MMCFD shortfall was witnessed in both the cities.

“The gas supply was an issue but the more serious problem was use of compressors by some consumers,” Mohammad Zahoor, GM Rawalpindi Region of the SNGPL said.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2017