Daily Times

Rizwan was sipping a cup of coffee that he had bought from McDonald’s when he received Ambreen’s request for a ride on the Careem app. He was once a mid-level manager in a pharmaceutical company. The company had recently wound up its operations in Karachi, leaving many jobless, Rizwan among them. However, as he owned a Toyota Camry, he started driving for Careem. The pay was good but he had to spend a lot of time driving his vehicle. “Please hurry, the temperature might rise very high today and I have to pick my children from the school,” Ambreen said to Rizwan after he picked her the lab. “How do you know this?” he asked her. “I am a scientist,” she said after a pause.

“Hi Ambreen, how are you?” Afsheen asked Ambreen as she got out off the car. Afsheen was her cousin and was just dropping her children off. Afsheen tried to warn her and the teachers about the danger: “Please, listen to me; the temperature today may rise very high, very quickly. It is going to be the hottest day we have ever seen. I am a scientist working on climate change; please it will not be safe for you or the children. You need to call the parents and send the students home.” But no one believed her. Down casted, she asked the teachers to fetch her children. After they arrived she got in Rizwan’s car and left for her mother’s house.

On the main super highway, traffic was blocked because of the large number of ambulances trying to reach the incident scene. People were trapped in their cars and feeling increasingly uncomfortable due the intensity of the heat from the burned vehicles and the rising temperature

“I am concerned about mom.” Zahid said to his wife. They were traveling to Hyderabad for a family wedding with their two children and Zahid’s mother. They were now stuck on the road due to the explosion. “I think we should abandon the car and try to find a shelter. The heat is just too high for mom.” his wife said in a concerned voice. . “Let me go out and check if there is any shelter available nearby.” Zahid said, and stepped out the car.

“Where is Ambreen” Azfar Naqvi stormed into the lab and asked Saira. “She went out to collect her children”, She replied.

“Did she say anything unusual about the weather forecast?” Azfar asked. “I think she was talking about her own predictive model. Something about the possibility of her algorithm being correct for once,” Saira said. Azfar dialed a number: “Hello Ambreen. Where are you? I need the weather forecast for today immediately.”

On the other side, Ambreen told Azfar about the alarming reading : “You wouldn’t believe me if I tell you Afzar. Although the usual forecast model is not predicting anything unusual for today but my own PhD thesis model is forecasting a massive rise in temperature. It might reach as high as 80 degree Celsius today. The city has never witnessed such a temperature rise before. It can cause problems such as reactor blast, massive power breakdown, breakup of entire communication network apart from millions of death. I don’t think the city would be the same tomorrow.”

For a long moment there was complete silence, “Are you sure about this?” Afzar asked. “It is only 10 am and already the temperature is above 40 degrees. I am quite sure,” Ambreen replied.

“Okay just hold on. I am taking the phone to the Chairman’s office. Many news reporters are there and they want an update on the current weather condition. I want you to explain it in a bit more detail for everyone’s sake. Just know that you will be live on TVs.” Azfar said, before dashing to the chairman’s room.

“I cannot talk for too long and I cannot take questions however you must know what may happen within a few hours. Please spread my message to all the people of this country and beyond. Recently my developed predictive model has suggested that a very large solar eruption has occurred as a result of the largest coronal mass ejection as never observed before. This has resulted in a massive solar storm on the surface of the sun. This has occurred nearly 72 or 96 hours ago. Basically it is a cloud of super heated gas and magnetic energy traveling at an estimated speed of 1.6 million KMs/hour. As this energy mass will approach the earth the temperatures will rise enormously. Moreover this coronal mass ejection must have happened again while the energy mass cloud would be on the way to the earth. So by mid day today another wave of heat will affect the earth that will raise the temperature instantly by ten or twenty degrees. There is also a chance of electromagnetic pulse due to this cloud of energy mass which will wipe out all satellite, telephone, radio communication, and all coherent electrical activities. Although the coronal mass ejections are common however this time it is on a collision course with the earth. When once the coronal mass strikes us, the temperature will decrease gradually however in the mean time the temperature may increase to even 80 or 90 degree Celsius which may cause millions of deaths. This event can rightly be called Carrington event of our century.”

Zahid had barely walked for 5 minutes before he felt dizzy. The temperature was very high. He thought he should have brought a bottle of water. Within few moments he was running back to the shelter of his car; he was feeling delusional. The intense heat from the burning oil tankers was adding to the heat of the atmosphere. Almost everyone was in their cars with the AC on at full blast. Within seconds he was on the ground, unconscious.

Published in Daily Times, October 24^th 2018.