RAWALPINDI: After a hot and humid day, light rain was recorded in some parts of the garrison city on Saturday evening while the Met Office predicted a spell of rain in the next 24 hours.

It was a hot day in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Though the temperature was recorded at 38 degrees Celsius, the feels-like temperature climbed to 49.2 degrees due to the 88 per cent humidity.

The Met Office said there were chances of rain in the early hours of Sunday while a good spell was expected by Monday evening to Wednesday.

“Moist currents from Arabian Sea are penetrating in upper parts of the country. A shallow westerly wave is also likely to affect upper parts of the country from Sunday,” a Met official said.

He said that mainly hot and very humid weather is expected over most parts of the country. However, he said that rain-wind/thundershower is expected at isolated places in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Potohar region, Islamabad, northeastern Punjab and Kashmir. Heavy rainfall may also occur at a few places during the period.

Hot and humid weather prevailed over most parts of the country, while very humid conditions persisted over the plain areas. The Met Office recorded 10mm rain at Shamsabad and 2mm at Chaklala in Rawalpindi. Thin traffic was witnessed on roads and streets while shopping malls wore a deserted look in the afternoon as people preferred staying indoors.

Dozens of people suffering from heatstroke had to be admitted to hospitals with some of them fainting. Repeated power outages added to the miseries of the masses.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2026