Changing season: First spring drizzle livens twin cities

ISLAMABAD:

The first drizzle of the spring season turned the weather pleasant in the twin cities on Saturday.

Many residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad took it as reward from nature on the weekend, and flocked towards public picnic spots.

The rains occurred almost three days later than anticipated by the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), which had forecasted rains between March 1 and March 3.

For the coming 24 hours, the met department has predicted rains with thunderstorms, accompanied by gusty winds in the capital, and at scattered places locations in Punjab. These include Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, DG Khan Divisions, as well as areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The PMD states that this is due to a westerly wave, which is affecting upper parts of the country, and is likely to move north-eastward in the next 24 to 36 hours.

Moreover, after the next 48 hours, the met department expects mainly dry weather in most parts of the country, except isolated locations in Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Kashmir, where rain with thunderstorms are predicted.

In last 24 hours, rain and thundershowers occurred at various places in Punjab, K-P, upper Sindh, Zhob division, FATA and Kashmir.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2016.