Most parts of Pakistan to experience hot, dry weather this week — Met Office

A policeman distribute cold drinks to bypassers near a 'heatwave relief camp' during a hot summer day in Karachi on May 23, 2024. (AFP)

• Pakistan’s plain areas to experience hot weather, southern areas “very hot” temperatures, says Met Office
• South Asian country is ranked among ten most vulnerable nations to climate change impacts

ISLAMABAD: Most parts of Pakistan, especially its plain areas, will experience hot weather this week, the country’s meteorological department said on Monday in its weekly weather forecast.
Pakistan remained in the grip of a severe heat wave last month that saw temperatures in the country’s southern Sindh province reach as high as 50 degrees Celsius. Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) last month warned that the heat wave would persist across parts of Sindh and Punjab in June.
“Mainly hot and dry weather is expected in most parts of the country while very hot in central/southern plain areas,” the Met Office said in its forecast for Monday. “However, partly cloudy weather with light rain/thunderstorm is likely at isolated places in Gilgit-Baltistan during evening/night.”
From Tuesday to Sunday, the Met Office said the country’s plain areas would experience hot temperatures while the country’s southern areas are likely to experience “very hot” temperatures.
“However, rain-wind/thunderstorm is expected at isolated places in Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” it said.
The South Asian country of more than 241 million, one of the ten most vulnerable nations to climate change impacts, has also recently witnessed untimely downpours, flash floods and droughts.
Climate change-induced extreme heat can cause illnesses such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heatstroke, and hyperthermia. It can make certain chronic conditions worse, including cardiovascular, respiratory, and cerebrovascular disease and diabetes-related conditions, and can also result in acute incidents, such as hospitalizations due to strokes or renal disease.
According to the Global Climate Risk Index, nearly 10,000 Pakistanis died while the country has suffered economic losses worth $3.8 billion due to climate change impacts between 1999 and 2018. A deadly heat wave that hit Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi, the capital of Sindh, claimed 120 lives in 2015.
In 2022, torrential monsoon rains triggered the most devastating floods in Pakistan’s history, killing around 1,700 people and affecting over 33 million, a staggering number close to the population of Canada. Millions of homes, tens of thousands of schools and thousands of kilometers of roads and railways are yet to be rebuilt.