Rain, hail turns weather pleasant in Hyderabad

Many areas in the district experienced power outages

HYDERABAD:

Hyderabad received summer showers, accompanied by mild hailstorms, strong winds and thunderstorms, on Sunday.

The rainfall, which started around 5pm and lasted for about 50 minutes, brought down the mercury from the day's peak of 41 degrees Celsius to less than 30 degrees Celisus.

However, the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO), following it past precedents, again plunged the city into darkness, forcing citizens who observe fast to have Iftar and offer Taraweeh prayers without electricity. Although it appeared that the power supply to almost the entire district had been suspended, the company's spokesperson claimed 70 electric feeders out of 113 in the district were without power.

The rain, as the company claimed, affected power supply from five of its grid stations. The outage occurred instantly after the rainfall. By 9.30pm the spokesman informed that 30 out of HESCO's 70 closed feeders were restored and efforts were under way to resume power supply to other feeders.

The rain also submerged some low-lying areas in the district, with water standing up to one foot or higher. The bad engineering of the roads also led to the accumulation of water on almost all main roads in the district.

The meteorological department's office in the district could not be contacted for rain readings. The Pakistan Meteorological Department's website, which is updated twice daily, also did not upload the reading of the amount of rain in Hyderabad and its surrounding districts.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2021.