LAHORE, July 11: Twevlve milmeter rain in downtown Lahore on Tuesday turned many streets and squares into rivulets and rainwater could not be cleared till late in the evening. The areas around the airport received traces of showers.

Where the rain was a relief for people braving mugginess for the last two days, crossing the inundated roads was a hassle particularly for pedestrians and motorcyclists.

The rain started at around noon and soon it inundated Laxmi Chowk, The Mall near GPO, Nabha Road, Thornton Road, Old Anarkali, Hospital Road near the Newspaper Market, Rattigan Road and several other streets around the walled city.

Rainwater could not be cleared from The Mall and Laxmi Chowk till the evening that badly affected the flow of traffic.

Earlier, it remained cloudy throughout the day and it was heavily overcast in the evening with the local Met office expecting more rain in the city during the 24 hours.

“The city’s maximum temperature was 32.4 degrees C and the minimum 27.5 degrees C with 78 per cent humidity in the morning and 75 per cent in the afternoon.”

According to the local Met office, the rain was generated by a strong monsoon current from the Arabian Sea and accentuation of the seasonal low over Balochistan.

The system gave rain in upper Punjab, the NWFP and Azad Kashmir.

Chief Meteorologist Shaukat Awan said the cloud cover was extended to Sialkot and Jhelum but the cell that gave rain in Lahore was of only 10 to 12km radius.

The Met office also reported rain in Jhelum 21mm, Mandi Bahauddin 11mm, Babusar 8mm, Kakul 5mm, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit 3mm and Rawla Kot 2mm.

The Flood Forecasting Division reported scattered light to moderate rain over the upper catchments of River Jhelum. Isolated rain was also reported over the upper catchments of Rivers Indus and Chenab along with northern and northeastern Punjab.

River Indus at Tarbela was in low flood and the other rivers were flowing below low flood level.

The FFD expected isolated light rain over the upper catchments of Rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej along with northern and northeastern Punjab.