ISLAMABAD: With chances of heavy rain during Eid days, the Met Office has warned citizens to be cautious of flash floods and landslides.

Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) spokesperson told Dawn that there is major risk for those picnicking around nullahs on the second and third days of Eid.

“Families often throng places such as Shahdara and Chattar Park on Eid days but these places are not safe this year,” he said.

He also warned that those planning to head to Murree, Ayubia, Muzaffarabad and Neelum Valley should also be aware of chances of landslides following rainfall. “Roads could be blocked and traffic may not be able to flow smoothly,” he said.

Although notes of caution have been issued to relevant departments, there is no system in place to warn people about flash floods in local nullahs.

National Disaster Management Authority deals with floods in large rivers and there is no authority in dealing with flood warnings at the local level.

In local calendars, the rainy season of Sawan officially began on Wednesday and the weather is expected to be hot and humid during the day with low wind speed of 10 to 15 kilometres per hour.

The satellite image published on the website of the Met Office shows that the sky over Pakistan is completely clear except for a small patch of cloud near Lahore, but a thick cloud pattern can be seen spread over a large area along the eastern coast of India.

These clouds originating from the Bay of Bengal penetrated into Bangladesh and closely following the southern ridge of the Himalayas, crossed into Pakistan on Wednesday afternoon.

Light showers are expected today (Thursday) in many areas.

The upcoming rain spell is likely to continue for five days from Friday to Tuesday, bringing widespread thundershowers in Kashmir, Islamabad, upper Punjab, Gujranwala, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal divisions, Malakand, Mardan, Hazara, Kohat and Peshawar divisions.

Scattered rain-thundershowers are also expected from Saturday to Tuesday in Multan, D.G. Khan, Bahawalpur, D.I. Khan, Bannu divisions, Fata, northeastern Balochistan, Sibi, Zhob, Kalat, Nasirabad divisions and Gilgit-Baltistan.

“It is expected that rain will be very heavy on Sunday and Monday, which can cause landslides on roads in hilly areas, flash floods in streams coming from hills and low flooding in water bodies coming from India,” the official added.

Published in Dawn ,July 16th, 2015

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