LAHORE, Aug 30: People braving oppressive weather and frequent outages heaved a sigh of relief after a dust storm and rain lashed the city on Saturday.

The weather was sultry till around 4pm, and the level of discomfiture was equal indoors and outdoors because of a shining sun and absence of power.

The relief came when dark clouds started covering the sky along with a dust storm. The wind was cool and the dust it raised settled soon because of the rain that followed.

The rain was a bit heavier around the airport than in the main city, but its cooling effect was evenly distributed.

The Met Office said the velocity of the dust storm was 70.6km per hour. It recorded 15mm of rain at the airport and 1mm at its Jail Road observatory.

It said the maximum temperature in the city was 35 degrees Celsius and the minimum 27 degrees Celsius with 71 per cent humidity in the morning and 87 per cent in the evening.

The Met Office attributed the change in weather to a westerly wave over the Northern Areas and incursion of monsoon moisture from the Arabian Sea. It reported 96mm of rain in Sialkot city, 28mm in Jhelum, 23mm in Mandi Bahauddin, 19mm at Sialkot airport, 8mm in Bannu and 1mm in Murree.

It expected a thunderstorm and rain with moderate to heavy falls at scattered places over the NWFP, Kashmir and northern Punjab over the next 24 hours. It was likely to remain partly cloudy over southern Punjab.