Daily Times

At least 13 people were killed in lightning strikes as heavy rains and thunderstorms accompanied by strong winds lashed upper parts of Pakistan for the second consecutive day on Monday. Deaths from lightning strikes were reported from different areas of Punjab including Narowal, Pasrur, Shakargarh and Sheikhupura. The pre-monsoon rains started hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir, Pothohar region/ northern and upper Punjab as well as north-eastern Balochistan late Sunday night, which lasted well into Monday.

Earlier, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) had predicted the start of pre-monsoon rains the country from June 25 – a spell that is expected to continue till June 30. In Lahore, the latest spell started at 4:40am and continued till 9am after the violent storm on Sunday evening. The amount of rain recorded in different areas of the city on Monday is given as: Paniwala Talab 165mm, Laxmi Chowk 161mm, Qartaba Chowk 154, Gulshan-e-Ravi 153, Jauhar Town 132mm, Jail Road 118.5mm, Gulberg 103, Tajpura 102mm, Samanabad 91mm, Nishtar Town 149mm, Mughalpura 72, and Airport 52mm. Earlier on Sunday, Lahore broke the daily record for the highest amount of rain in June as Airport witnessed 174mm of rain. When it comes to the last 24 hours, the figures (rain in mm) for the city are:

Lakshmi Chowk 241, Paniwala Talab 236, Qurtaba Chowk 230, Airport 226, Gulshan-e-Ravi 213, Nishtar Town 202, Iqbal Town 178, Tajpura 165, Jail Road 163, City 162, Jauhar Town 155, Gulberg 130, Mughalpura 126, Chowk Nakhuda 125, Samanabad 120, Farrukhabad 115, and Upper Mall 103. The amount of rain recorded in mm for other cities and towns is: Sialkot (Airport 71, City 47), Jhelum 67, Gujrat 60, Rawalpindi (Katcheri 66, Chaklala 55, Shamsabad 52), Islamabad (Airport 77, Bokra 59, Zero Point 58, Golra 56, Saidpur 47), Mangla 56, Kasur 55, Narowal 54, Mandi Bahauddin 53, Gujranwala 44, Chakwal 41, Murree 39, Attock 30, Hafizabad 09, DG Khan 08, Sargodha 02, Bhakkar 01.

Rawalakot 40, Muzaffarabad (City 33, Airport 25), Kotli 28, Garhi Dupatta 21, Mardan 81, Bannu 41, Balakot 36, Kakul 25, Peshawar 22, Bacha Khan Airport 20, Cherat 11, Pattan 10, Dir (Upper 08, Lower 02), Malam Jabba, Saidu Sharif 03, DI Khan Airport 02, Barkhan 33, Khuzdar 20, Zhob 18, Lasbella and Ormara 02, Samungli 01. Meanwhile, the authorities failed to tackle the situation as WASA staff and vehicles – barring a few exceptions – were not seen on roads to drain out the rainwater accumulated on roads and in low-lying area. However, rainwater reported to recede as soon as rain stopped.

Fortunately, very few people didn’t dare to leave their homes in early hours for offices due to heavy rains, resulting in less traffic; therefore, otherwise busy roads were not clogged on Monday morning.