Growers have been advised to make arrangements for timely reaping the Rabi crop in order to avoid/minimise the post harvest losses, as increased frequency of dust-thunderstorms associated with rain showers/hails have been forecasted for coming weeks.
The met office has urged the farmers to complete harvesting as early as possible saying the intensity of dust storms was likely to increase in April, warning that the predicted weather change could cause damage to the standing crops.
"The current wet spell is likely to yield dust-thunderstorms/rains at scattered places of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northeast Punjab, Northeast Balochistan, Gilgit- Baltistan and Kashmir during the next 36 hours," the office said in its fresh weather advisory. It warned that there was also a risk of hailstorms at isolated places in D. I. Khan, Bannu, Kohat, Sargodha, Lahore and Rawalpindi divisions during the next 24 hours.