LAHORE: Heavy-to-moderate but scattered rain was witnessed in the city on Saturday while Meteorological Department predicted similar weather conditions for the next 24 hours.
The rain started early morning and continued till evening in spans. The highest rain was recorded at Tajpura where WASA recorded 57 mm rain. Data showed that 56 mm rain was recorded at Mughalpura, Airport (50 mm), Lakshmi Chowk (49 mm), Farrukhabad and Iqbal Town (46 mm each), Pani Wala Talab and Gulshan-e-Ravi (44 mm each), Upper Mall and Chowk Nakhuda (43 mm each), Nishtar Town and Samanabad (37 mm each), Head Office Wasa Gulberg (30 mm), Qurtaba Chowk (28 mm), City and Jail Road (18 mm each) and Johar Town (17 mm).
Following the scattered heavy to moderate rain, WASA’s MD Ghafran Ahmed moved heavy machinery to most affected localities and directed the field formations to immediately start rainwater drainage process. He remained in the field and supervised the operation. Later, MD WASA visited other city areas and disposal stations of WASA.
Traffic was slowed down due to rain on Canal Bank Road, Ferozpur Road, Multan Road and other localities. During the rain, a large number of motorcyclists took refuge under the underpasses of the city resulting in traffic jams.
Many traffic signals were also seen out of order and traffic wardens were not present at the spot to control the traffic manually, which also resulted in jams.
Most of the stagnant rainwater on the main roads was cleared till evening, MD WASA said adding the agency’s field formations were stationed at emergency camps to tackle more rains.
Meanwhile, MET officials warned that torrential rains may cause flash floods in local nullahs/streams of Kashmir, Northeast Balochistan and hill torrents of Dera Ghazi Khan on 7th July while heavy rains may cause urban flooding in Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Narowal, Faisalabad during the said period.
Landslides may disrupt roads at the vulnerable points of hilly areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Murree, Galliyat, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, they said adding strong monsoon currents from Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal were penetrating upper/central parts of the country while a fresh westerly wave was affecting most upper/central parts of the country.
MET officials predicted that dry weather was expected in most parts of the country. Rain-wind/thundershower was expected in south Punjab, upper Sindh, eastern Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan, Kashmir, Potohar region and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while heavy falls were also likely at isolated places in northeast Balochistan, upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Saturday’s highest maximum temperature was recorded at Nokundi and Dalbandin where mercury reached 48°C while in Lahore it was 34.5°C and minimum was 20.3°C.
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