KARACHI: Many areas of the city on Wednesday received light to moderate showers that broke the intensity of hot and humid conditions and making the weather pleasant.

The Met office said the new spell is likely to continue till Aug 14.

The city witnessed early morning drizzle in several areas and the situation turned a bit critical in the second half of the day when majority of city areas witnessed moderate rainfall that continued with frequent breaks.

“The situation is likely to turn stronger from Thursday [today] when heavy rainfall is expected almost all over the city,” said Dr Sardar Sarfaraz, the chief meteorologist, adding that the fresh downpour of the fourth spell of the current monsoon season was likely to stay till Sunday.

Due to forecast of heavy rain, BIEK postpones papers scheduled for today

By the evening, PAF Faisal Base received the highest amount of rainfall i.e, 51 millimetres, followed by Quaidabad (45mm), Jinnah Terminal (35.6mm), Old Airport (35mm), Korangi (34.8mm), DHA Phase II (33.9mm), Saddar (33mm), Saadi Town (31.8mm), Surjani Town (28mm) and University Road (27mm).

The other areas witnessed drizzles, traces or single digit count of the downpour.

The rain also led to power failures in several neighbourhoods.

A statement issued by the K-Electric said that during the current spell, approximately 250 of more than 1,900 feeders within KE network were affected, the majority of which were temporarily powered off. These areas were also immediately restored upon receiving clearance from ground teams, it added.

The Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) has postponed all exams that were to take place on Thursday (today) due to the weather situation.

The exams, which include Arts (regular), Arts (private) and exams for special candidates will now take place 10 days later on Monday, Aug 22, at the very same centres.

On the other hand, the rains again didn’t only inundate low-lying areas, but also main roads. A traffic police spokesperson said that rainwater had accumulated on main roads across the metropolis, disrupting smooth flow of traffic.

On Sharea Faisal, a portion of the road from Avari Tower to Lal Kothi was inundated with rainwater disrupting the traffic on both the tracks.

The road between Model Colony graveyard towards JTC near Madam Cut was closed to traffic because of accumulation of rainwater, said the spokesman adding that the traffic was diverted to alternative routes.

The rainwater also accumulated near Stadium bridge towards Karsaz causing problem in smooth flow of traffic.

The main road in Shadman Town was closed and vehicular traffic was diverted to alternative routes from Qalandria Chowk towards Sakhi Hasan.

Similarly, rainwater accumulated on M. T. Khan Road towards Jinnah Bridge and Boat Basin on both the tracks.

Both sides of the KPT underpass were also inundated with rainwater resultantly traffic was adversely affected.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2022