LAHORE : Heavy rain followed by wind, thunder and hailstorm hit the provincial capital on Saturday morning while Met office predicted chances of scattered rain during the next 24 hours.
The heavy rain broke the heat wave, which was haunting the citizens before and during Eid holidays. Dark clouds covered most parts of provincial capital early morning. Later, the weather became pleasant due to the rain and strong winds. The citizens breathed a sigh of relief as the heat intensity decreased.
The highest rainfall was recorded in Nishtar Town at 30 mm, Chowk Nakhuda at 24 mm, while Gulberg received 7 mm of rain. Similarly, Laxmi Chowk received 26 mm, Upper Mall received 22 mm, and Mughalpura received 23 mm of rain. In addition, 17 mm of rain was recorded in Tajpura, Gulshan Ravi, and Iqbal Town areas.
Due to rain and hailstorms, traffic flow in different areas of the city was also affected. Citizens, especially bikers used to take shelter under shady trees, underpasses and other places.
Following the rain, Wasa MD Ghafran Ahmed and DC Lahore Capt (retd) Ali Ejaz came out on the roads to monitor the city situation and remained in the field till drainage operation was completed.
Meanwhile, a wall collapsed on a rickshaw due to rain and wind in the Wapda Town area of Lahore, injuring two people who were shifted to Jinnah Hospital by Rescue 1122.
On the other hand, more than 50 feeders of Lesco tripped due to rain. Due to feeder trips and other technical faults, power was cut off in several areas, causing inconvenience to citizens. Lesco officials said that work of restoring the feeders will start as soon as the rain stops.
The rain also brought down the AQI to 89, which came in the category of moderate and PM2.5 concentration was 2.6 times the World Health Organisation (WHO) annual PM2.5 guideline value.
Meanwhile, Met office warned that maximum temperatures were likely to remain 04 – 06 °C above normal and may rise to (47-50)°C in districts of Sukkur, Shikarpur, Qambar Shahdadkot, Jacobabad, Larkana, Mohenjo Daro, Dadu, Shaheed Benazirabad, Tharparkar, Badin, Sujawal, Thatta, Hyderabad, Matiyari, Tando Muhamad Khan, Umerkot, Ghotki, Khairpur, Naushero Feroze, Mirpur Khas, Jamshoro, Sanghar, Sibbi, Turbat and Panjgur.
They said weak moist currents were approaching northeastern/eastern parts of Punjab from Bay of Bengal. A high pressure was also present in upper atmosphere and may persist till next 36hrs.
They predicted mainly hot and dry weather was expected over most parts of the country while very hot in Sindh, Southern Balochistan and plain areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, partly cloudy weather was expected over Kashmir, Potohar region and northeastern Balochistan during afternoon.
On Saturday highest maximum temperature was recorded at Dadu and Jacobabad where mercury reached 51°C while in Lahore it was 29°C.
