‘Intensity of monsoon system has weakened’: Met office takes U-turn

Rains with thunderstorm still likely to hit some parts of Sindh and Balochistan including Karachi from today, says PMD

ISLAMABAD:

After predicting heavy rains across the country, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Sunday revised its forecast, saying the “intensity of current monsoon system has weakened”.

The Met office said the epicentre of the monsoon system has moved to southwest of Karachi in the Arabian Sea.

The PMD said in a weather update that rainfall with strong winds and thundershowers are still expected in different parts of Sindh and Balochistan from today (Sunday) evening which will continue till Wednesday (July 13).

Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Dadu, Karachi, Khuzdar, Lasbela, Awaran, Kharan and Panjgur are likely to receive the thundershowers, said the PMD.

Earlier, the PMD had issued a forecast that heavy rains with thunderstorms are expected to drench the metropolis from July 3 to 5.

Also read: PMD warns of urban flooding

Strong gusts of winds are likely to sweep through the city posing dangers of signboards and trees falling down. As per PMD, there were fears of urban flooding as the downpour was expected to be “greater than that witnessed last year”.

The sea will be rough with high and choppy waves churning up with the storm, the PMD had said, warning fishermen to be careful.

PMD Chief Meteorologist Karachi Sardar Sarfraz had said that successive monsoon rains between July 1 and 15 could cause ‘urban flooding’. The second spell of monsoon rain will start in Karachi from July 7 or 8, which will last for three to four days over Eidul Azha, he added.