LAHORE, June 7: A new wave of hot and dry weather gripped the country on Friday as the temperature suddenly rose to above 40 degrees C in most cities.

Turbat was the hottest place with a maximum temperature of 50.5 degrees C.

In Lahore, the day’s maximum temperature increased from Thursday’s 40 degrees C to 43.4 degrees C. And the 51 per cent humidity in the morning made it hard for the people especially schoolchildren to brave the weather.

The impact of the hot weather continued to linger on till Friday night. The temperature at 9:30pm was 38 degrees. The wind was calm and the sky covered with a thick layer of suspended dust and other pollutants.

Repeated power breakdowns and suspension of water supply again added to the miseries of the people in most localities, making them suffer for long hours till night.

According to the Met office, the temperature rose to above 40 degrees C even in Saidu Sharif, Azad Kashmir, Peshawar, Islamabad and Rawalpindi where the recent spate of thunderstorms and rains had made the people forget that June was the peak month of the long summer in the country.

The Met office reported that the maximum temperature in Turbat was 50.5 degrees C, Sibbi 47.7, Bahawalnagar 47, Sargodha 46.5, Faisalabad and Jhelum 45.8, Bannu 45.3, Jhang 45, Jacobabad and Peshawar 44.5, Rawalpindi 44.4, Sialkot 44.3, Nawabshah and Rohri 44, Kotli 43.9, Bahawalpur 43.5, Multan and Islamabad 43, Khanpur and Muzaffarabad 42 and Saidu Sharif 40.4 degrees C.

The Met office predicted that it would remain hot and dry in almost the entire country including Lahore in the next 24 hours.

The temperature would further increase but the element of humidity in the air in Lahore would minimize because of the continued hot weather, it reported. — Staff Reporter