LAHORE: The tropical cyclone VAYU intensified in the eastern Arabian Sea as a very severe cyclonic storm on Wednesday and is now likely to give scattered high to very heavy rainfall in three southeast Sindh districts on Thursday (today) and Friday, says Pakistan Met Department in its latest bulletin.

It said the intensified cyclonic storm moved further north-northwestward and lay about 725km southeast of Karachi. The maximum sustained surface winds are 135-145 km/hour gusting to 160 km/hour around the system centre.

The system is likely to continue to move in the northerly direction. Under its influence, widespread dust/thunder-showers with scattered heavy to very heavy falls are expected in southeast Sindh (Thatta, Badin and Tharparkar districts) on Thursday and Friday. Scattered/isolated dust-thundershowers may occur in the rest of Sindh.

The department reiterated that the sea breeze is likely to remain cutoff on Thursday-Friday, leading to heat wave like conditions in the coastal areas of Sindh, including Karachi.

Fishermen are also warned to refrain from going into the open sea from Wednesday evening to Friday evening in view of the likely very rough/high conditions there.

Meanwhile, a shallow westerly wave over upper parts of the country gave rain that was heavy in Gilgit-Baltistan on Wednesday lowering maximum temperatures in the plain areas to some degrees C.

Light rain that was coupled with a windstorm early in the morning kept weather pleasant till sun once again created hot weather conditions. The maximum temperature dropped to 40 degrees C from 45 degrees C on Tuesday but it still was too hot to bear.

Astore recorded 62mm of rain, Skardu 44, Chillas, Bagrote 22, Gilgit 20, Bunji 4, Rawalakot 17, Muzaffarabad, Garidupatta, Kotli 14, Islamabad 19, Joharabad 12, Mandi Bahauddin 11, Murree 10, Rawalpindi 8, Sialkot, Mangla, Sargodha 4, Lahore 3, Gujrat 02, Gujranwala, Narowal, Chakwal 1, Kakul 16, Balakot 13, Malamjabba 9, Saidu Sharif 7, Chitral, Parachinar 6 and Cherat 1.

It forecast mainly hot and dry weather in most parts of the country, while very hot in eastern Balochistan and central/southern Punjab in the next 24 hours. Dust-thundershower-rain is expected at scattered places in south eastern Sindh.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2019