LAHORE / KARACHI: Karachi, and some other cities and towns in Sindh, continued to be in the grip of an abnormally hot weather for a second day, with the mercury touching the 43 degrees Celsius mark.

The extremely hot weather has been affecting parts of Sindh because of a monsoon depression, which is otherwise bound to produce flood-generating rains in Punjab and over catchments of its rivers over the next two to three days.

Health authorities in Karachi said that an elderly man died and 16 people affected by heatstroke had been brought to hospitals.

Dr Salma Kauser, who heads the hospitals run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, said that a man in his 60s had been brought dead to the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases.

“Doctors on duty have confirmed that the man died because of heatstroke,” she said.

Dr Zafar Ejaz, director health, said hospitals in the city received 16 people who had suffered heatstroke.

About 15 people were reported to have been affected by heatstroke on Saturday.

Maximum temperature in Karachi on Sunday was recorded at 43 degrees Celsius as against 33, the average normal temperature in the city in September. The maximum temperature in other cities in the province too was five to seven degrees higher than the normal temperature for the month.

The Met department has predicted that the heat spell in Karachi and elsewhere will end by Tuesday.

A heatwave, more severe than the present one because of longer duration, had claimed over 1,000 lives in Karachi in June.

According to a Met official, Monday is expected to experience a slight drop in the temperature.

Responding to Dawn queries, he said that the minimum temperature recorded on Sunday in the city was 28 degrees Celsius while humidity — the amount of moisture in the atmosphere — was 20 per cent. The weather in the city on Monday is expected be partly cloudy and the maximum temperature to be between 39 and 41 degrees Celsius.

For Punjab, the next two days are crucial because of ample chances of heavy to very heavy rains in Lahore and several other cities and towns, particularly in the north-eastern part of the province and over upper catchments of the four eastern rivers.

The monsoon depression that is likely to produce this rain moved to Indian Gujarat on Sunday and is likely to move towards Pakistan over the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, it rained in parts of Lahore and in other cities under initial impact of the system. The Met department recorded 27mm of rain at its Jail Road observatory in Lahore. The maximum temperature was 31 degrees C and the weather remained cloudy to partly cloudy.

Director General of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority Jawad Akram held a meeting with officials concerned to take stock of the situation.

He said administration of all districts had been asked to get ready to meet any eventuality. Holidays in government departments throughout the province have been cancelled.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2015

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