The Pakistan Meteorological Department has forecast dry weather across most of Pakistan over the next 24 hours, with partly cloudy skies and cold conditions in northern areas, while Lahore again faced severe smog on Monday morning.
According to the PMD forecast, light rain and snowfall over hills are expected at isolated places in upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan at night. Apart from those isolated hill areas, the forecast for most of the country is dry, with northern areas experiencing partly cloudy skies and cold conditions. That pattern reflects the seasonal shift towards cooler and drier weather in much of Pakistan at this time of year.
Minimum temperatures recorded on Sunday morning give a sense of the current cool conditions. Karachi recorded 24 degrees Celsius, Lahore 17, Peshawar 14, Islamabad 12, Muzaffarabad 11, Quetta 9, and Gilgit and Murree 8 degrees. Those figures show a clear variation across the country, from Karachi’s relatively warm minimum to the much colder minima in the northern hill areas of Gilgit and Murree.
Lahore, however, faced a different and more serious problem on Monday morning: smog. The city was again reported as the world’s most-polluted city on Monday morning, with its air quality index, or AQI, reported at 509, rising to 535. AQI readings can vary by monitor and by time, so figures should be read as reported readings at particular times and places, rather than as a single fixed value for the whole city.
The readings reported for individual areas of Lahore were even higher in some places. Iqbal Town was reported at 902, Paragon City at 698, Chamman Park at 619, Burki Road at 569, Model Town at 471, DHA Phase-V at 412, Bedian Road at 358 and Askari X at 298. Those area figures show that pollution levels varied considerably across the city, with some localities recording extremely high readings while others, though still high, were lower.
An AQI at these levels indicates very poor air quality, with potential health effects for residents, particularly for children, older people and those with respiratory conditions. Smog in Lahore is a recurring seasonal problem, often worsening in cooler, drier conditions when pollutants are trapped near the ground and when there is no rain to clear the air.
The Punjab Health Department advised residents to stay home and unnecessarily avoid going out, to close windows and doors and to use face masks. That advice reflects the standard precautions for severe smog: reducing exposure by staying indoors where possible, keeping outdoor air out of homes by closing windows and doors, and wearing a mask when going outside is necessary. The advice to avoid going out unnecessarily is particularly important for vulnerable groups, who face greater risk from poor air quality.
The Met Department forecast dry weather with no rain over the next 24 hours, which means there is no immediate prospect of rain clearing the smog in Lahore. Rain can help to wash pollutants from the air, so a dry forecast suggests that smog conditions may persist in the short term, at least until weather patterns change.
For Lahore, the day’s high was expected to be around 30 degrees Celsius, with a low of 17 to 18 degrees. Those temperatures, combined with dry conditions, are consistent with the seasonal pattern in the city at this time of year, when days remain warm but nights become cooler.
The combination of dry weather across most of Pakistan, cold conditions in the north, isolated rain and snowfall over hills in upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, and severe smog in Lahore, therefore defines Monday’s weather picture. For most of the country, the forecast is settled and dry, but for Lahore residents, the immediate concern is air quality and the health advice that accompanies it.
Residents are advised to follow the Health Department guidance, to limit outdoor activity where possible and to take precautions when they must go out. With no rain forecast in the next 24 hours, those precautions remain important for the coming day.
Source: Express Tribune (PMD), 24NewsHD.
