According to the Met office, the deep westerly wave having three rare frontal systems gave heavy rainfall in the length and breadth of the three provinces with snowfall over the hills in the past 24 hours. At many places strong winds followed rain and snowfall.
It said almost the entire Punjab continued to receive heavy rain with brief intervals on Monday night and Tuesday. It was raining at many places, including Lahore, till the filing of this report at 9pm.
The rain hit Lahore in two spells, one in the early morning (from 5am to 8am) and another in the evening (from 4:30pm to onwards) turning streets and low-lying areas into rivulets. Those leaving for educational centres and workplaces in the morning and then returning home in the evening faced a great deal of inconvenience as passing inundated streets was quite a hassle.
Traffic moved at a slow pace and many vehicles and motorcycles went out of order because of the showery rain in the morning. Rickshaw drivers overcharged and there was a rush in wagons and buses.
The rain in the evening was heavy and was coupled with a windstorm whose maximum gust was 88.5 kilometres at 4:28pm. Strong winds continued to blow along with the rain till late in the evening, making driving motorcycles unsafe.
Many hoardings and trees were uprooted because of the strong winds and roads were covered with broken tree branches and leaves. Repeated power breakdowns throughout the day added to the inconvenience of the people and delayed work in offices.
Chief Meteorologist Shaukat Ali Awan said the system which had caused loss to human life and property in the country was rare in decades. Against the westerly system’s normal covering area of around 200km, the present system was covering entire Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, the Arabian Sea, bordering cities of China, India and Nepal, proving beneficial for the entire region.
But, he said, its major portion had moved eastwards in the past 24 hours. The system’s portion which had wreaked a havoc in Karachi and Hyderabad also drew moisture from the Arabian Sea which happens only during monsoon.
He said the system’s first frontal system had moved over to India giving rain upto Delhi, the second was affecting the plains in the Punjab and the third would generate more rainfall and snow over the hills in the NWFP and the Northern Areas in the next 24 hours.
Mr Awan said the frontal system over the Punjab would start moving ahead towards India after 12 hours. But upper parts of the Punjab would continue to have light to moderate rain in the next 24 hours.
He said clouds over Afghanistan would give rain to the NWFP and the Northern Areas even on Thursday.
According to the Met office, from 5am to 8pm Lahore airport received 63.36mm of rain and the city 44.9mm. It was still raining at 9pm.
From 8am to 8pm Kalam received 106mm of rain, Risalpur 105mm, Kakul 67mm, Bahawalpur 57mm, Jhelum 51mm, Saidu Sharif 14mm, Rawlakot 87mm, Balakot 9mm, Muzaffarabad 8mm, Gilgit 7mm, Chillas 8mm, Dera Ghazi Khan 2mm, and Multan and Dera Ismail Khan 1mm each.
Before 8am on Tuesday, Malam Jabba had 140mm of rian, Muzaffarabad 113.9mm, Balakot 113mm, Islamabad 105mm, Saidu Sharif 99mm, Hyderabad 71mm, Rawalpindi 61mm, Kotli 56mm, Jhelum 55.6mm, Peshawar 55mm, Sialkot 40.4mm, Faisalabad and Parachinar 37mm each, Bahawalnagar 36mm, Chillas 24mm, Sargodha 21mm, Boonji 20mm, Chorr 17.3mm, Zhob 14mm, Jhang 13.9mm, Multan 11.3mm, Dera Ismail Khan 9.5mm, Badin 8.5mm, Bannu 8.2mm, Sibbi 7.7mm, Dera Ghazi Khan 5.3mm, Gilgit 3.6mm and Skardu 2.3mm.
The Met office has predicted a widespread thunderstorm, rainfall with snow over the hills in Rawalpindi, Malakand, Mardan, Hazara divisions and in Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Skardu during the next 24 hours. There were also chances of thunderstorms and rain in Lahore, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad and Dera Ismail Khan divisions.