KARACHI: Karachiites witnessed another spell of winter downpour on Thursday, but this time round most parts of the city received scattered showers and light rain that further reduced the temperature while strong winds turned the city weather a little chillier.

The city remained under thick dark clouds right from the morning and most parts of the metropolis received drizzle and light rain in the second half of the day.

The maximum rainfall was recorded in Surjani Town, which received 19.2mm of rain followed by North Karachi with 11mm.

In other observatories, the meteorological office mostly recorded traces ranging from 0.2mm to 3mm.

It was only light rain and shower, but the traffic system again failed to cope with it as hours-long traffic jams were witnessed on almost all key arteries of the city.

The traffic authorities, however, blamed the accumulated rainwater on roads for the snarl-ups that ultimately turned into a massive gridlock at many places.

The city temperature shared by the Met department by 5pm dropped to 18 degrees Celsius. However, the Met office predicted that it could further drop to 12 degrees Celsius by Friday.

In its outlook for the next 28 hours for Sindh, the Pakistan Meteorological Department said that thunderstorm and rain with a few moderate to isolated heavy rainfalls were likely to occur in the Larkana, Sukkur, and Mirpurkhas divisions as well as Shaheed Banazirabad district. It predicted light rain at isolated places in the Hyderabad and Karachi divisions.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2022