KARACHI
It appears that cyclone ‘Asna’ has spared Karachi as after moving 100 kilometers closer to the port city, it has moved 200 kilometers away; but still, the city and other coastal areas and those near them are expected to receive torrential rains on Saturday.
According to the sixth alert issued by the Meteorological Department, despite the fact that the storm is now moving in a westerly direction, heavy rains are still likely to lash the city as well as Tharparkar, Thatta, and Sajawal; three cities which will be impacted by the storm the most.
Showers have also been predicted for Mirpurkhas, Umarkot and Sanghar.
On the other hand, downpours have been reported from across the province, inundating villages and severing power supply.
Director General Met Office Sahibzada Khan has said that winds, accompanying the rain, may be devastating for the weak infrastructure.
He has said that it is after 60 years that the storm has developed so close to the coastal areas of Sind.
He has described the rising sea temperatures as a worrying sign.
According to the latest Met Office advisory, the Cyclonic Storm (CS) “ASNA” (Pronounced as As-Na) over northeast Arabian Sea off Sindh coast has moved further westward during past 9 hours and now lies at around Latitude 23.6 N & Longitude 65.7 E at a distance of about 200km southwest of Karachi, 220km south-southeast of Ormara and 380km southeast of Gwadar. The system is likely to track further west-southwestwards.
Under its influence, rain-thundershowers with few heavy falls and accompanied with squally winds (60-70Km/hour gusting 80Km/hour) has hit Karachi division while Badin, Thatta, Sujawal, Hyderabad, TM Khan, TA Yar, Matiari, Jamshoro and Dadu districts of Sindh will also receive heavy rains today evening/night and same is the case in Hub, Lasbella, Awaran,Keach and Gwadar districts of Balochistan till tomorrow night.
Heavy rains may create water logging in low-lying areas of Makran coast, the Met Office said.
Sea conditions are likely to remain rough/very rough with squally winds of 60-70 km/hour gusting 80Km/hour. Fishermen of Sindh are advised not to venture into sea today and those of Balochistan till tomorrow.
