KARACHI: With the monsoon season expected to last two months, the country has already witnessed record rains last month when the national rainfall was recorded at 181 per cent above average, making this July the wettest since 1961.

Pakistan’s Monthly Climate Summary for July, issued by the Pakistan Meteorological Depart­ment (PMD) on Wednesday, said this year’s monsoon set on in the country from June 30, a day before its normal onset date when strong moist currents from the Arabian Sea started penetrating into southern Sindh from July 1.

It also mentioned reasons based on detailed data information of 25 climate stations of the country. The currents “spread over upper and central parts of the country from July 6. In addition, the moist currents from the Bay of Bengal also kept entering the country and these features lasted almost through the entire month,” said the summary.

The summary is produced by PMD’s Climate Data Processing Centre in Karachi to provide the major features of weather events occurred in the country during the month. With above-average rainfall across the country in July, the month’s showers were “excessively above average” in Balochistan and Sindh.

Karachi’s PAF Masroor received highest monthly rainfall of 606mm

“National rainfall for the month of July 2022 was largely (181pc) above average and stood as record wettest July since 1961,” it said, adding that the previous month’s rainfall alone exceeded the total normal monsoon seasonal rainfall by 26pc.

Balochistan and Sindh received 450pc and 308pc more rainfall than average, it said. The above-average figure was 116pc in Punjab, 32pc in Gilgit-Baltistan and 30pc in KP.

“The wettest day of the month in the country was July 25, when Badin (Sindh) recorded 219mm (of rainfall), whereas PAF Masroor (Karachi) remained the wettest place with a monthly total of 606mm,” it said.

Other areas that received significant monthly rainfall were Islamabad Airport 573.3mm, Padidan 535.4mm, Gujranwala 494mm, Islamabad (old airport) 481.9mm, Takht-i-Bahi 456.2mm, Islamabad Zero Point 449mm, Gujrat 424mm, Sialkot Cantt 423.1mm, Lasbela 404.7mm, Mangla 391.2mm, Jhelum 383.7mm, Chakwal 383.6mm, Kotli 360mm, Murree 356mm, Sialkot airport 352.4mm, and Balakot 352.4mm.

On the other hand, Chilas and Nokkundi were the only two stations that remained dry with no rain at all during July.

According to the PMD summary, the country witnessed three widespread rainy spells in July, considered to be the wettest month of the year.

After lashing mostly light to moderate rains in most parts in the first week of July, the monsoon season started turning stronger in the second week when a low-pressure area developed over southern areas of Punjab on July 7 and prevailed until July 15.

“Another monsoon low developed over Gulf of Kutch (India) on July 16, which converted into a depression on July 17 and lay over Northeast Arabian Sea-Gulf of Kutch, India,” the summary said, adding that among all three spells, the third one in late July proved the heaviest when mostly southern parts of the cou­ntry witnessed torrential rains.

“A fresh low-pressure area formed over southeast Sindh and adjoining areas on July 22 and persisted until July 27, which produced heavy rains in central and southern Sindh, including Karachi, leading to urban flooding in Karachi, Thatta and Badin districts,” it said.

“Overall, the monsoon axis (a line stretching from the seasonal low’s centre to the Bay of Bengal in the east) remained to the south of its normal position,” it said.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2022