The Sindh authorities have advised the people to take necessary precautions while going outdoors during the next two days after a forecast by the meteorological department that the mercury could shoot up to 43 degrees Celsius on Friday and Saturday.
Weathermen in Karachi shared the forecast released by Islamabad saying that a north-westerly wind system would bring a fresh heatwave in the city and many other parts of the country that could touch 40 degrees Celsius on Friday and 43 degrees Celsius on Saturday.
“The mercury would shoot up to a disturbingly high level during the next two days with hot and dry weather, but they would be entirely different than what we saw in Karachi during the last monsoon and not as lethal and suffocating as that,” said an official at the Met Office. The city started to witness hot weather on Thursday when temperature was recorded 38 degrees Celsius, said the official.
The city’s worst heatwave was recorded in June, which persisted for around two weeks and caused 1,200 deaths. Around 200 other people died during the same period in other parts of Sindh.
Responding to the weatherman’s warning, the provincial government earlier yesterday advised the people to adopt precautions.
A government spokesperson said it had established heatstroke emergency centres to serve people affected by the ensuing heatwave.
“People should avoid going outdoors unnecessarily and drink as much water and liquids as they can,” said the spokesperson.
The government advised the people to go to hospitals immediately in event of a heatstroke.
Besides, Sindh Chief Secretary Muhammad Siddique Memon asked the provincial health ministry to ensure that doctors and paramedics were available in all hospitals in the province, particularly during the next three days.
He warned that the government would not accept any excuse on the part of the relevant officials in the health department.
Previously, Sindh officials had complained that the Met Office had ‘misguided’ them about the weather. “They warned us about monsoon rains and made us clean the drains when we should be taking measures for the looming heatwave,” a senior official had said. However, now, with an advance warning by the weathermen, the provincial government would find no excuse to absolve itself from the responsibility of any eventuality.
The weather officials had then admitted that the phenomenon perplexed them as well. They later found it was a continuity of the weird weather pattern caused by El Nino effect with humidity, low air movement and dry wind, which had plagued India for a week. The temperature remained between 40 and 45 degree Celsius for a week and the wind had very low velocity.
These officials, however, now offered good news for Sunday and onwards when Karachi, some other parts of Sindh and several districts of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan would receive showers or thunderstorms.
Isolated heavy rainfalls are also expected in Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Bahawalpur divisions on Sunday/ Monday, and Sahiwal, Lahore and Gujranwala divisions on Monday/ Tuesday.
