LAHORE: Five more spells of rain and snowfall — three over upper parts of the country and two over Balochistan — are expected this month, heralding the onset of early winter and causing more problems for the people affected by the recent earthquake.
At present a westerly wave is already generating rain and snowfall over hills in the quake-hit areas and north Punjab.
Weather remained cloudy to partly cloudy in Lahore on Wednesday and the Met department said the current spell was likely to produce scattered rain with snowfall over the hills in upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata, north Punjab, Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir over the next 24 hours.
According to the prevailing climatic trend, it said, November would be wetter than normal because of the southward track of westerly waves. The ongoing spell of rain and snow will continue for a couple of days, lowering the temperature by two to three degrees Celsius.
Afterwards, three spells of rain and snow are expected in KP, north Punjab, Islamabad, Fata, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir and two spells over northeast Balochistan during this month.
The second spell of light intensity is expected at isolated places of upper KP, north Punjab, Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Kashmir during the second week of this month.
According to the Met department, Dir received 66mm of rain, Murree 38mm, Malamjabba 35mm, Parachinar 33mm, Kalam 30mm, Pattan 29mm, Lower Dir 27mm, Mirkhani 25mm, Drosh 24mm, Saidu Sharif 22mm, Chitral 22mm, Rawalakot 20mm, Peshawar (city 20mm and airport 9mm), Rawalpindi (Chaklala 16mm and Shamsabad 8mm), Balakot 16mm, Astore 15mm, Kotli 14mm, Garhi Dupatta 12mm, Islamabad (Saidpur 10mm), Kakul 10mm, Mangla 10mm, Mianwali 9mm and Muzaffarabad 9mm.
It forecast more rain-thunderstorm, with snowfall over hills, at scattered places in upper KP (Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar and Mardan divisions), Rawalpindi division, Fata, Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir and at isolated places in Gujranwala, Sargodha and Kohat divisions over the next 24 hours.
Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2015