LAHORE: As the plains of the country reeled under the stifling heat again on Thursday, the Pakistan Meteorological Department warned the government agencies to gird up their loin to handle widespread rain that might be heavy at isolated places, generating urban and flash flooding from Saturday to Monday.

The urban flooding was likely in big cities and flash flooding in vulnerable areas of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Rain and the glacier-melt water could also burst some glacial lakes in Chitral, Gilgit, Ghizer and Shigar areas, the department said in its latest monsoon forecast on Thursday.

The three-day spell would be produced by strong monsoon currents likely to penetrate in upper parts of the country in the next 48 hours, and an approaching fresh westerly wave.

The department forecast that upper Punjab (Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodha, Faisalabad divisions) and Islamabad will receive widespread rain-thundershowers with isolated heavy falls accompanied by strong gusty winds. Scattered rain-thundershowers with isolated heavy falls are also expected in central and South Punjab (Multan, Sahiwal, D.G. Khan, Bahawalpur divisions) during the period.

The system will cover Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan divisions) and Kashmir (Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Poonch divisions) and FATA (Kurram, Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, North and South Agencies).

Scattered rain-thunderstorm is also expected in Gilgit-Baltistan from Saturday to Monday.

Meanwhile, the energy sapping high temperature and humidity continued to pester people in the length and breadth of the country.

The maximum temperature in Lahore and Faisalabad was 41 and 40 degrees C and humidity 45 and 44 per cent. The maximum temperature in Peshawar and Multan was 42 and 43 degrees C and humidity 50 and 34 per cent.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2016