LAHORE: The first spell of the monsoon this year started in Lahore on Tuesday night and the Met department said it would cover upper Punjab and catchments of eastern rivers till June 30.

Weather was very hot in Lahore and other Punjab cities earlier in the day. It rained in parts of Lahore in the afternoon and again heavily in the main city in the night, providing immediate relief against the hot weather. The maximum temperature in Lahore was 43 degrees Celsius, in Sargodha 42 and in Multan and Faisalabad 41.

The Met department says moist current from Arabian Sea is penetrating upper parts of the country up to 3,000 feet and is likely to intensify from Bay of Bengal as well during the next three days. The current will interact with a trough of westerly wave already persisting over northern parts of the country and give the first spell of the monsoon season in the country.

The Flood Forecasting Centre forecast moderate to heavy falls at scattered places with dust storm over Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Lahore and Gujranwala divisions along with upper catchments of the rivers Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej from June 27 to 30. Moderate rainfall with heavy falls at isolated places is expected over the upper catchment of River Jhelum along with Rawalpindi, Sargodha and Bahawalpur divisions during the period, it says.

Nullahs of the river Ravi may attain low to medium level flooding during the period.

The Met department also expected rain in Malakand, Hazara, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sukkur, Larkana, Karachi, Kalat, Zhob divisions, Islamabad and Kashmir in the next 24 hours.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2018