LAHORE: The advent of cold weather has further delayed until 20th December due to the ongoing weak as well as high altitude westerly winds, said sources. Earlier, it was expected to start by 10th of December, they added.
They said the minimum and maximum temperatures would remain 7C and 25C respectively with zero chances of rain. Accordingly, fog would turn in smog with continuity of dry spell, triggering dust and vehicular emission fast to the environment.
This situation would add to the miseries of Environment Protection Agency (EPA) that was expecting winter rains in early December, and thus reducing dust particles in the air.
Even 10 millimeter rain was enough to control dust but all such hopes have diminished fast due to unusual trend of westerly winds. They said the dust particles have started crowding around water vapours, which were floating in the air earlier.
According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) sources, Pakistan would face real impact of smog ahead which would ignite respiratory diseases among masses. A delay in rain would reduce winter season to 40 days from earlier expectations of 45 to 50 days, they added.
They said the peak winter season would start from January 5 and would continue until Jan 20 during this season. Also, above normal rains are expected from January to March.
Meanwhile, the germination of dengue mosquitoes is over and no more dengue fever patients are visiting hospitals. However, the sale of second hand clothes has been hit hard due to delay in cold spell and most of the vendors are offering discounts to customers to sale out inventories.
It may be noted that the weather has been the most unpredictable phenomenon throughout 2022 and many unusual developments have wondered the weather experts time and again. It all started in the early part of the year when winter season directly transformed to summer season without spring season.
It was followed by drifting of monsoon winds to the Arabian Sea against the traditional trends of impacting South and Central Punjab, inundating both Balochistan and Sindh provinces and leaving 33 million people without shelter.
The third unusual development has been recorded in the shape of delayed winter. It is worth noting that the westerly winds had brought a few impressive spells of rain in the month of October, giving rise to the hope that more rains would bring early winter to the country.
However, this prediction has proved wrong due to the fact that the onwards spells of westerly winds not only got weakened but also passed through Pakistan at a very high altitude.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022