KARACHI, Sept 6: After being baked by a heatwave over the past three days, the city on Tuesday afternoon received intermittent showers bringing down the mercury by around 10 degrees centigrade within a few hours.While many areas experienced prolonged outages, at least two people died from electrocution after coming into contact with live electric wires during the rains.
Weathermen forecast chances of rain for Wednesday also.
The rains, which started on Tuesday afternoon, continued with brief intervals in different parts of the city. The airport and surrounding areas received the maximum rainfall which was recorded at 72 millimetres.
“Before the rain lashed the city, the maximum temperature was recorded at 37 degrees centigrade,” said Met officials while speaking to Dawn.
They added that it started raining at around 4pm and the temperature dropped to 27.9 degrees centigrade by 9.30pm.
According to them, the monsoon low that hovered over north Arabian Sea and coastal areas of the Indian state of Gujarat shifted to Rajasthan, which changed wind direction and resulted in pulling in cool sea breeze.
This eventually caused precipitation, bringing down the mercury.
It was still raining in the airport areas when a rainfall of 72 millimetres was recorded there. Model Colony received 55 millimetres, PAF Base Faisal 32mm, Nazimabad 18mm, Landhi 16mm, Saddar 12.5mm, PAF Base Masroor 6mm, and Gulshan-i-Hadeed and North Karachi each received at least 3mm of rainfall.
The Met officials have forecast partly cloudy weather with chances of rain and thunderstorm for Wednesday.
The hours-long showers resulted in the accumulation of rainwater on stretches of many roads and low-lying areas. At least two pedestrians died from electrocution apparently in rain-related incidents, a charity service and hospital sources said.
The 25-year-old pedestrian, Wasim Ahmed, was electrocuted after coming into contact with a live electric wire near KDA Chowrangi in North Nazimabad.
Another man, in his late 20s, met the same fate near Nasir Jump in Korangi.
“The body has been shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he remained unidentified,” said an official at the Chhipa Welfare Association.
Power outages
Earlier widespread and prolonged disruption in power supply was reported from across the city late on Monday night, but the KESC response centre did not attend to complaints for hours.
Prolonged outages caused residents to spend the hot and humid night without sleep. What the complainants who dialled the KESC service ‘118’ kept getting all night was a recorded tape advising them to save energy.
The worst-affected areas were Shah Faisal Colony, Gulshan-i-Hadeed, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Metroville, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Maymar, Malir, Korangi, Lyari, Orangi, North Karachi and parts of Federal B Area, North Nazimabad.
Residents of Bhitai, Akhtar and Manzoor colonies as well as those working in the Korangi indus-trial area said that undeclared power outages had become the order of the day.
Between 1.30am and 5.45am, many parts of Shah Faisal Colony and Gulistan-i-Jauhaar were without power.
Residents of Gazdarabad, Ramswami, Bohrapir, Plaza Quarters, Jubilee, Chand Bibi Road, Juna Market, Nishtar Road, and Pankha Lane also complained about frequent power outages. They said that power cuts were experienced after a gap of every hour.
The power failures have also created serious water problem in many areas.