Portal Interactive: History of 31-May 1985 and 1986 in Karachi

•  This article is shared by Waseem Ahmed for PWP from Karachi city, Sindh, Pakistan

31^st May and KARACHI – A Look at the History

In the past, Karachi had experienced a ‘Panic Situation’ on the same day in two consecutive years:

On Friday, 31^st May 1985, a Tropical Cyclone in the Arabian Sea diverted towards Indian Gujarat near Run-Kuch coast. Earlier it was heading a bit north when it created panic in Karachi.

Although I was very young & didn’t have knowledge or concept about the maps, but I remember that day very well, it was the Friday during the month of Ramzan, the anxiety and prays were going high until it was informed that cyclone has diverted. Clouds were coming from ENE brought some showers in that afternoon and in the evening it was strange looking reddish sky just before the Aftaar.

31-May 1985 cyclone satellite clip:

On Saturday, 31^st May 1986: Another day during the month of Ramzan, it was quite warm and humid till late afternoon as clouds started to appear around 4 pm from north, covered the sky and turned very dark. Then, I remember, around 4:30 it turned out ‘yellowish red sky’ with absolute darkness like night, then Karachi experienced about 15 minutes of very severe dust storm,  known as ‘Kaali Andhi’ in which thunder and rain accompanied later. Winds speed was recorded 60 knots & rainfall was 17 mm and it caused widespread damage in the city. That storm remained the most severe on the records of Karachi till the 23-June, 2007 storm.

31-May 1986 storm information:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1477-8696.1988.tb03943.x/abstract

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