Karachi receives third of its annual rainfall in three hours

Met office foreca­sts the city would stay wet till Sunday.


Our Correspondent September 06, 2012

KARACHI: Heavy rain continued to pour down in the city on Thursday when the city recorded 62 mm of rain between 5pm and 8pm alone. The average rainfall for an entire year in Karachi is 200mm.

While light rain kept peppering the city in early afternoon, dark clouds started to gather around 5pm. A full-fledged thunderstorm was soon underway, the second day of such weather.

Traffic jams developed along almost all major arteries, including Shahrah-e-Faisal, Shahrah-e-Liaquat and Karsaz Road - a sight most residents had experienced only a day before. Before the evening storm, the city had already received 16mm of rain near the airport, Shahra-e-Faisal, Lines Area and University Road. By 9:00pm, the Karachi Airport observatory had recorded 63mm of rain, the Old City Area 48mm, Landhi 45mm, University Road 38mm, Shahrah-e-Faisal 33mm and Saddar 6mm.

Karachi led other cities the province in terms of rainfall on the day with 62mm, followed by

Hyderabad (26.8mm), Larkana (25mm), Nawabshah (24mm), Mithi (17mm) and Tando Jam (0.8mm). Thatta saw the highest rainfall in the province on Wednesday, 77 mm.

Power outages

Over 80 electricity feeders tripped in the wake of the heavy rainfall on Wednesday, according to the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC). Another 24 feeders tripped by Thursday evening.

“We have the situation under control. A majority of the city’s 1,300 feeders continue to provide electricity. Our technical teams are trying to restore the tripped feeders,” KESC spokesperson Aminur Rahman told The Express Tribune. He added that parts of Defence Housing Authority, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and PECHS, among other areas, suffered from power outages.

Met office predicts more rain

Chief meteorological officer Mohammad Tauseef Alam credits the low pressure area in India, which is now located over west Madhya Pradesh state and adjoining areas, for triggering the rains on Thursday. This low pressure zone is expected to move in the north west direction over the next 24 hours.

“We expect the rains to continue well into Saturday, and it might stop by Sunday,” predicts Alam. He added that Landhi, Malir, Malir 15, Faisal Colony, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Qaidabad, University Road, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Saddar, Defence and Clifton were among the areas that received heaviest rainfall on Thursday.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2012.

COMMENTS

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ