LAHORE: Widespread rain in the country on Friday gave the first installment of much-needed water to the areas where drought-like conditions were reported to have developed only a fortnight ago.

Rain also made the weather pleasant for people but also caused them numerous problems like inundation of low lying areas, urban flooding and power loadshedding. In Lahore, at least 11 people were injured when walls of two mosques, one in Model Town and another in Chauburji collapsed during rain at the time of Juma prayers.

The Met Department’s Flood Forecasting Division in Lahore said the current (first) monsoon spell was likely to decrease on Saturday. But another spell would begin on July 2 over the upper parts of the country. Monsoon season starts in Pakistan from July 1. But this time the seasonal currents reached here four days earlier after covering the entire India.

The Met department reported heavy rain in parts of Sindh and Punjab, badly affecting life there. The worst hit was Kasur which recorded 94mm of rain. Adjoining Lahore too continued to receive rain, which was heavy at times, throughout the day and it was heavily overcast at around 8.30pm.

The Met department reported that Dhali in Sindh recorded 80mm of rain, Chhor 75, Chachoro 40, Badin and Mithi 33, Diplo 24, Mirpurkhas 11, Kalohi 4, Tandojam 2, Karachi (Jinnah Terminal, Landhi 2).

Sialkot in Punjab recorded 63mm of rain at the airport and 52mm in its cantonment, Gujranwala 57, Lahore (Airport 52 and City 49), Sahiwal 31, Okara 23, Mandibahaudin 12, Faisalabad 11, Gujrat 10, Bahawalnagar, Jhelum 9, Mangla 5.

Skardu received 22mm of rain, Astore 6, Kotli 18, Rawalakot 03 and Parachinar 12.

The rainy day kept maximum temperatures low almost all over the country. It was 28 degrees C in Lahore, Multan and Sargodha.

Where rain made weather pleasant in Lahore, it disrupted power supply at a large scale. Roads remained inundated during most parts of the day, also disrupting flow of traffic.

The Met department said the rain causing trough of westerly wave over northern parts of Afghanistan persisted and the strong moist current from the Bay of Bengal was penetrating over eastern parts of the country up to 5000 feet. A low pressure area (monsoon system) lay over West Madhya Paradesh.

Therefore, scattered thunderstorm/rain with isolated heavy falls is expected over upper catchments of the rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej along with Faisalabad, Gujranwala Lahore, Sahiwal and Bahawalpur divisions and southeast Sindh. In the next 24 hours.

Isolated thunderstorm/rain is also expected over Malakand, Hazara and Rawalpindi divisions along with Gilgit Baltistan and South Sindh.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2018