The provincial capital on Thursday witnessed the hottest day of the on-going summer season and the month of April has seen abnormality in maximum temperature since it has recorded above mean temperature. According to a Pakistan Meteorological Department Lahore, the maximum temperature touched 43 Celsius degrees, whereas the minimum temperature was 25.5 Celsius degrees.
For the last few days, the daytime temperature had been hovering in the 40s, which is well above the average temperature for the month of April, that is 34 Celsius degrees. It is interesting to note that the maximum temperature of Lahore was inching towards all-time record of 46.1 Celsius degrees, which was recorded in April 1941.
The weather experts see abnormality in April's temperature due to abnormal monsoon rains in 2009 and suppressed winter rains, which was caused by El-Nino weather pattern, started in June 2009. Hence, Pakistan is facing drought conditions. Meanwhile, weather remained hot and dry in other parts of the country. Day temperatures of plain areas in central and southern parts of the country remained above normal.
Larkana was the hottest place in Pakistan where maximum temperature recorded was 47 Celsius degrees and the coolest place was Kalam where the minimum temperature was 4.5 Celsius degrees. The weather experts see no respite from hot weather in the next few days, since a westerly wave is affecting northern parts of the country and may persist for next 48 hours. Hence, for the next 24 hours, Punjab would remain mainly dry. However, isolated dust-thundershower may occur at a few places of Islamabad/ Rawalpindi divisions on Friday.
In NWFP, mainly dry weather is expected in most parts of the province during next 2-3 days and again isolated rain-thundershower may occur in Malakand and Hazara divisions on Friday. In most party of Sindh and Balochistan, hot and dry weather is expected during next few days. However, isolated rain-thundershower may occur in Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan during next few days with occasional gaps.