LAHORE, May 28: Mugginess caused by unusual incursion of moisture from the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal ruled the plains in Punjab, including Lahore, on Sunday.
According to the Met office, the country was experiencing oppressive weather in dry and hot month of May after decades. Similar weather conditions persisted in 1945 and then in 1956, Chief Meteorologist Shaukat Awan said, adding there were no signs of relief during the next 24 hours.
The energy-sapping hot and humid weather kept streets deserted in Lahore. Repeated power breakdowns and fluctuations, and short water supply added to the miseries of Lahorites.
The canal proved to be the last refuge as hundreds of youngsters thronged it to take a dip in its cold but polluted water.
The city’s maximum temperature was 41.1 degrees C — one degree less than Saturday’s, but 51 per cent humidity made it hard for the people to brave the weather. Though humidity came down to 29 per cent in the afternoon, there was no let-up in the heat.
The Met office said the actual heat stress was nearly 46 degrees C because of moisture, invading the plains in the province because of excessively hot and dry weather during the first portion of the current month.
The excessively high temperature during the first fortnight of the month developed a low pressure over Balochistan, which happens only in Monsoon, prematurely causing moisture. Since there was no westerly system to generate rain, moisture was creating a great deal of inconvenience for people.
Mr Awan said the low pressure was developed because the temperature nearly touched the maximum record limits of 52 degrees C in the country during the first fortnight of the month. The weather would again resume its normal dry and hot pattern if it rained, he said.
“This is not regular monsoon. It is only a pattern of the rainy season,” he said.
He said Multan region had particularly been affected by the present weather conditions because of suspension of dust in the air. Visibility in Multan was less than one kilometre on Sunday, forcing suspension of flights there, he said.
Traditionally, monsoon starts in Pakistan from July 1 but it can set in from June 15 as well provided the temperatures remain up earlier in the month.
Mr Awan said it was hard to forecast monsoon pattern right now but added that its activity had already been started over Kolkatta and Chennai coasts in India.
Meanwhile, the maximum temperature in almost all the cities in the province was 40 degrees C. It was 46.5 degrees C in Dera Ghazi Khan, 43 in Jhelum, 47 in Bahawalpur, 48 in Khanpur, 42.3 in Sialkot, 47.4 in Multan, 42.4 in Sargodha, 49.5 in Rahim Yar Khan, 44 in Faisalabad and Sahiwal, 41 in Mandi Bahauddin and 47.5 in Bahawalnagar.
The local Met office has, nevertheless, forecast scattered thunderstorm and rain in central Punjab and a few dust or thunderstorms in the southern region during the next 24 hours.