KARACHI: The hot and humid weather the city was experiencing for the past few days turned a bit pleasant on Wednesday evening after light-to-moderate rain hit several areas.

The Met department recorded the maximum amount of rainfall in PAF Masroor Base (16mm) followed by Keamari (11mm), Nazimabad (7.1mm), PAF Faisal Base (9mm), Surjani Town (8.2mm), old airport area (4.6mm), North Karachi and Orangi Town (4mm each), University Road (2.7mm), Jinnah Terminal (0.4mm), Gulshan-i-Hadeed (1mm) and Saadi Town (0.5mm), respectively.

The areas of DHA Phase II, Quaidabad, Korangi and Ibrahim Hyderi received 2mm of rain, each.

According to the Met department, the maximum temperature recorded in the city was 36.5.

The department has forecast partly cloudy weather with chances of isolated thunderstorm/rain in the evening on Thursday (today) and fair to partly cloudy weather on Friday.

Although the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) claimed the situation of drainage across the city largely remained normal after the rain and only a few areas required extra efforts and deployment of machinery to drain out the accumulated rainwater, the alerts issued by the traffic police suggested otherwise.

Traffic authorities through their social media platforms and FM Radio service kept motorists informing about blockages in different parts of the city due to accumulating rainwater.

However, the situation improved a few hours after the rains and by sunset most of the roads witnessed normal flow of traffic.

The key intersections where traffic movement remained affected included the patches between I. I. Chundrigar Road and Shaheen Complex and Sharea Faisal from Metropole Hotel and Nursery.

The vehicles movement, according to the traffic police, was also affected on Abdullah Haroon Road, near Teen Talwar, Fawara Chowk, Chaudhry Khaleeq uz Zaman Road, Gizri Road and Garden.

In Central district, it said, Ayesha Manzil and Liaquatabad areas witnessed long queues of traffic where hundreds of vehicles were bumper to bumper due to their slow movement after accumulation of rainwater. Almost similar situation was witnessed near Hino Chowrangi, Singer Chowrangi and Vita Chowrangi in Korangi Industrial Area and on Mauripur Road, Jinnah Bridge, M.T. Khan Road and the road linked with Naurus Chowrangi, said the traffic police.

Meanwhile, the KE claimed that power supply to Karachi remained stable amid the rain spell.

It said that 1,900 of 2,000 feeders continued to provide uninterrupted power supply in many localities of the metropolis. It said that power was temporarily suspended in some areas but it was restored after rain.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2023