LAHORE: Scattered light rain and windstorm on Wednesday brought temperatures down by 5 to 7 degrees Celsius than their normal value for the month in most parts of the country, especially the plains.

A rain-causing westerly wave is affecting most parts of the country and is likely to maintain the effect during the next couple of days.

In Lahore and many other cities of Punjab, the maximum temperature was around 35 degrees C due to cloudy or partly cloudy weather. Dust-thunderstorm/rain occurred at isolated places in south Punjab, Malakand, Hazara, Quetta, Kalat, Zhob, Sukkur, Lahore divisions and Kashmir.

Kotli received 26 milimetres of rain, Garhi Dupatta 3, Bahawalnagar 25, Bahawalpur 12, Sahiwal 9, Dera Ghazi Khan 8, Okara 3, Kasur and Khanpur 2, Multan and Khanewal 1, Malamjabba 16, Dir (Upper 5, Lower 3), Kakul 2, Saidu Sharif 1, Jacobabad and Zhob 8, Kalat 6, Barkhan 2 and Dalbandin 1.

Shaheed Benazirabad and Sakrand’s maximum temperature was 44 degrees C, which was the highest in the country. It was followed by Mirpurkhas 42 and Chhor 41.

The Met department forecast dust-thunderstorm/rain at scattered places in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan divisions), Punjab (Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur divisions), Islamabad, Balochistan (Quetta, Zhob, Kalat, Makran, Sibbi, Naseerabad divisions), Sindh (Sukkur, Larkana, Shaheed Benazirabad, Karachi divisions), Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir in the next 24 hours.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2019