ISLAMABAD, June 24: The long-awaited changes in the weather system seem to have arrived as the soft clouds filled the atmosphere in twin cites on Sunday reducing the intensity of sun, while the winds also became cooler compared to the previous days, when the mercury had surged to more than 44 degrees Celsius.

Besides the good news released by the met office is that pre-monsoon rains will arrive in the country soon after midnight today (Monday).

Due to the arrival of cool winds carrying moistures from Central Asia, Sunday morning, the temperature dropped sharply to under 40 degrees Celsius in most parts of the country.

Though, small and shallow but this turf carried by strong winds brought rain and precipitation in Rawalpindi Division, Mianwali and many areas of central Punjab including Kamoki, Lahore, Sargodha.

However, Monday is likely to remain dry and hot with expectations of dust thunderstorm in some parts of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but after midnight as the heavy moist air coming from Arabia Sea will result in pre-monsoon rainfall, the weather will cool down significantly.

With the seasonal low over Northeast Balochistan and adjoining areas and the low pressure in the plains of Punjab during the recent heat wave, the westerly waves have started to enter the country from the sea through the coast of Sindh.

The met office has said that these winds would settle in Punjab extending up to Rawalpindi division. “These winds are warm and create rainfall usually at night when the weather conditions are cool and if the air coming from Central Asia persists, the pre-monsoon rains would go even up to Peshawar and beyond,” said an official of the met office.

The met office has predicted that as the clouds coming from South move inwards into the country it is expected that southwest monsoon would create intermittent / scattered rain-thundershowers in Eastern Baluchistan, Sindh coast, central and upper parts of Punjab, upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and most parts of Kashmir from Tuesday to Thursday.

Gilgit-Baltistan is also likely to receive scattered rain during this period. The met office has advised the farming community to adopt rain water harvesting practices to recharge the soil moisture reserves especially in rain-fed areas which are under stress conditions due to deficit rainfall during past four months.

However, the brief relief of pre-monsoon rains will be followed by the regular monsoon in the fist week of July.

The cloud formations over the Bay of Bengal, as seen on the satellite images posted at the met office website, clearly show that Easterly winds would soon cross the plains of Northern India and enter the country from East Punjab, in the coming weeks.