Weather forecast: Dry spell likely to continue till mid-Dec

Met office says winter has started a bit earlier than usual

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast that the dry spell across the country is expected to continue till mid-December.

“Light to moderate rains are expected after mid-December across Pakistan with above normal snowfall in upper parts of the country,” Director-General Met office Dr Ghulam Rasul told The Express Tribune on Monday.

Different parts of the country will continue receiving light to moderate rain with the duration of 10 to 15 days, he added. ‘This break will provide a good opportunity to farmers for planting wheat crops who have not done so yet.”

This year the winter season, the meteorologist said, has started a bit earlier than usual and so far rain-fed areas including Balochistan have received sufficient rain well on time.

“Farmers in these areas are lucky enough that they got the required amount of rain to cultivate wheat according to schedule,” he said.

Talking about the impact of heatwave that hit Pakistan early this year, the official said it is difficult to predict winter cold wave but it is expected that the heatwave would not have any such impact on the winter this year. “Pakistan is under extreme influence of climate change therefore it is not easy to forecast what is going to happen sooner or later.”

According to Dr Rasul this year Pakistan had experienced some extreme weather conditions such as heatwave that claimed many lives in Karachi followed by tornado that hit Peshawar and its neighbouring cities in April and flash flooding in Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan among others.

“This year’s extreme change in weather shows the severe impact the climate change is to have on Pakistan,” he added.

Meanwhile, talking about fog, the Met official said it is expected from the second week of December and will persist till January.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th,  2015.