LAHORE: The city received a healthy amount of rain on Friday when some of its areas were lashed with 91 millimetres (mm), with high-speed winds, pushing the temperatures down to 29 degrees Celsius – from a scorching 43 degrees Celsius a day earlier.

The minimum temperatures also dropped by around 10 degrees Celsius and were recorded at 22 degrees Celsius – dipping from the early 30s Celsius a night earlier. “We literally had forgotten how it rains in the city in the last three drought months. It refreshed the city, which wore a much cleaner and pleasant look on Friday,” says Muhammad Javed of Gulberg.

“Though we also suffered inundated road, missing electricity supplies and traffic mess, but the relief of receiving rain was much higher and soothing,” Javed says. To further relief, the wet cycle would stay for another four days and continue showering the city till 21. High-speed winds, which as per the Met reading, blew at 10 knots, or 20Km, only helped revitalize the city residents and environment of Lahore, he says.

“The air quality index (AQI) also showed improvement with reading dropping down to 100 in most of the city parts, and some even more,” says an employee of a non-government organisation.

It is a normal procedure with rain and wind, but since it is polluting, factors are too strong and consistent to go away easily. Like, vehicular pressure, the main contributing factor, is lethal in keeping the air index down to a subhuman level. Though rain keeps washing the city and its environment even vehicles keep polluting it even in between showers; so, it is a continuous battle between rain and rising pollution, and the latter normally wins.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2022