LAHORE: Another spell of rain with snowfall over the hills is likely to lash the country from Sunday to Tuesday.

According to the latest advisory of the Pakistan Meteorological Department on Thursday, another westerly wave is likely to enter Pakistan through Balochistan on Saturday (night) and is expected to grip upper parts of the country from Sunday evening.

A strong westerly system is already giving rain and snowfall over the upper parts of the country and in Afghanistan, where it caused widespread devastation on Wednesday.

The system has, during the past 24 hours, dumped 2ft of snow in Malamjabba and 1ft in Kalam, generating 50mm of rain in Parachinar, 48mm in Garhi Dupatta and Malamjabba, 43mm in Saidu Sharif and 40mm in Dir.

According to the Met department, the new weather system is likely to give scattered rain with snowfall over the hills in upper Punjab, lower Balochistan and Sindh, upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and upper Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA), while at isolated places in north Balochistan, South Punjab and upper Sindh from Saturday (night) to Tuesday.

Thunderstorm rain (snowfall over the hills) with occasional hailstorm is expected at scattered places in lower parts of the country (Makran, Kalat, Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions) from Saturday (night) to Monday (morning), and in upper parts of the country, including Islamabad (Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Lahore, Malakand, Mardan and Hazara divisions), upper FATA (Bajaur, Mohmand, Kurram, Orakzai and Khyber agencies), Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir from Sunday night) to Tuesday.

Met Office further elaborated that thunderstorm, rain with snowfall over the hills is also expected at isolated places in north Balochistan (Quetta and Zhob divisions), south Punjab (Bahawalpur, Multan & D. G. Khan divisions), KP (Peshawar, Kohat, D I Khan & Bannu divisions) and upper Sindh (Sukkur division) on Saturday/Sunday.

There is a possibility of landslides in Kashmir and adjoining areas of Baltistan.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play