ISLAMABAD: The last rain of the monsoon season is expected over the weekend but it will be accompanied by strong a thunder and even isolated cloudburst.

As the strong weather system to likely to hit the region from late Friday night to Saturday, there are high probabilities of heavy downpour in some areas, increasing the risk of flash floods, urban flooding and even landslide in hilly areas, said the Met Office.

The key reason for a threat advisory mainly for hilly areas by the Met Office is the collision of both the eastern as well as the western systems over northern parts of the country.

The strong hot and humid conditions over parts of Balochistan and southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have invited moist winds from the Arabian Sea that have started to penetrate the upper parts of the country.

At the same time, the moisture laden monsoon winds are infiltrating the country from the north, including Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

As the position of the earth moves away from the sun, which will bring winters in the northern hemisphere, the wind flow too has started to change from warmer east to colder west.

“Strong weather system from northwest along with the cold air will enter north Pakistan on Thursday night and it will interact with monsoonal currents on Friday,” said Dr Mohammad Hanif, a spokesman for Pakistan Metrological Department (PMD).

The Met Office advised the citizens not to visit Murree or other hilly areas due to the risk of landslides in the wake of heavy rainfall.

Rain/thundershowerwith gusty winds are expectedatscattered places in Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodha, Faisalabaddivisions, KP, GB, Kashmir and Zhob division in Balochistan up to Sunday. The overall weather conditions will start changing from the next week as humidity will gradually reduce and the night time temperature will slowly decline.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2018