Scattered destruction in Peshawar and northern Pakistan!

“Hell broke down in upper parts!”

DEVELOPING STORY: With 10 deaths and 60 people injured, northern and central Pakistan saw the other side of the Kali Andhi (Dark dust storm) that brought death and destruction to many cities of the country. The storm that started in Peshawar slowly slowly gripped almost every major city of the country. The blinding dust storms was due to the western disturbance 09 which was over extreme northern areas. The western wave was weak in intensity that is the reason that the thunderstorms only blew winds and had little to no precipitation. Another factor contributing in supplying moisture was the presence of an upper air cyclonic circulations over south Punjab.

Afghanistan – Place of birth

The thundercloud developed during the afternoon over Khyber province and adjoining Afghanistan and later gained intensity to become a large thunderstorm that affected northern Balochistan, Khyber and Punjab. The dust storm affected Islamabad, Quetta, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan, Sargodha, Muzaffargarh, Faisalabad and other adjoining cities. Although the dust storms were not as strong when compared with previous storms but it was greater in size. Following was the wind speed in some the cities;

• Peshawar at 80 km/h
• Lahore at 71 km/h
• Multan at 56km/h
• Islamabad/Rawalpindi at 55 km/h

More coming?

Light rainfall occurred in Lahore and Quetta with strong winds that uprooted trees and hoardings, at least five women including three children died when their house collapsed in Lahore. The fresh activity has broken the heat wave that has been persisting over the northern areas since last couple of days. The southern parts of Pakistan continue to experience high temperatures excluding Karachi where local sea breeze and overcast conditions is a cause of relief for the Karachiites. The western disturbance would continue to affect the northern areas till 36 hours before influencing Indian Kashmir.

Below is the video from PWP – YouTube of the dust storm that took place in Lahore on June 5, 2012;