El-Nino: Three dead in rain related incidents

Stormy weather dumps hail and rain across northern Balochistan.

QUETTA: Three people were killed in ain related incididents as downpour continued in northern Balochistan for the second consecutive day.

A nine-year-old child was killed when the wall of his home collapsed in Sariab Road area of Quetta. In another incident, a person died of electric shock in the Assembly Colony locality of the city.

In the Sherani town of Zhob district, two women and a two-year-old child died when the house of Niamatullah Babar caved in following torrential rains. Hailstorm damaged crops in Hernai district.

Quetta witnessed a heavy hailstorm last night followed by hours long rain that inundated roads and streets of the provincial capital.

Naushki, Mastung, Panjgur, Killa Saifullah, Killa Abdullah, and Ziarat also witnessed heavy rains.

The Met Office said that the provincial capital and northern Balochistan would continue receiving more rain during next 24 hours. The highest maximum temperature 15 centigrade and the lowest minimum 02 centigrade were recorded in the metropolis.

Meanwhile, experts said the ongoing rain spells of spring season would continue in most parts of the country in the month of April with intervals.

The unexpected heavy spring rains are due to El-Nino (weather change due to warming of the surface of Pacific Ocean), an expert at Met Office said. “Keeping in view the prevailing regional and global weather conditions, it is expected that the ongoing rain spells will continue in the month of April too,” said Farooq Dar, Senior Meteorologist, Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD).

The present wet spell that started from Thursday in different parts of the country is the fourth one of this spring season.


Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2016.