Low rainfall may trigger drought-like conditions in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Meteorological Department has forecast that low rainfall during this monsoon season may trigger drought-like conditions in Pakistan. “Consequent upon prevailing ocean and atmospheric conditions, summer monsoon rainfall is expected to be normal in the first half and below normal in the second half of the season, in Pakistan,” PMD said. Salient features of outlook for the season (July to September) 2017 are as under: Area weighted rainfall during monsoon season over Pakistan is expected to fall short of long term average. However, rainfall will be highly variable over temporal and spatial scale. During July, monsoon rainfall may range in normal limits but less than normal rainfall is likely in August and September. Less frequent rains in southern half of the country may trigger drought like conditions. There is a high probability of localized rain spells which may generate flash flooding in mountainous and sub-mountainous regions. Due to erratic behavior of summer monsoon, extreme precipitation events may occur at isolated places in the country, which can result into floods. Localized events of rainfall coupled with rapid melting in the glaciated regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral may trigger Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) events. – Samaa