LAHORE: First monsoon rain that was coupled with a windstorm provided instant relief to people in Lahore and some other cities in Punjab against the prolonged heat spell on Thursday, and the Met department says the rainfall activity is likely to extend to the next week.

The Flood Forecasting Division said the rainfall activity was likely to increase over the upper catchments of all the major rivers along with north and northeast Balochistan and upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

It was extremely hot and humid in Lahore till 2pm. The combination of heat and the enhanced humidity created suffocating weather conditions which appeared to be too much for people especially children and the elderly.

And then strong wind began to blow away heat from the city all of a sudden. A windstorm that was coupled with rain lashed the city at around 4:30pm, providing relief to people as it dropped the day’s 41 degrees Celsius maximum temperature to 26 degrees Celsius.

It was cloudy to partly cloudy in the evening and there were chances of more rain.

The Met department said it also rained in some other cities in Punjab, including Kasur.

The FFD said an approaching westerly wave lay over northeast Afghanistan and adjoining areas. Moist monsoon currents from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are penetrating upper parts of the country up to 4,000 feet and are likely to strengthen in the coming days.

The Met department forecast dust-thunderstorm/rain with gusty winds at isolated places in Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sargodha divisions, Islamabad, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in the next 24 hours.

Dust raising winds are also expected in Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur divisions.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2019