Cold weather sneaked up on twin cities again with slight rain recorded in Rawalpindi and Islamabad at the start of the weekend.
According to the Met Office, Rawalpindi received around one millimetre of rain in the 24 hours between Friday night and Saturday.
But a foot of snowfall in the Galiyat during the same time period meant the chill returned to the capital and its neighbouring city on Saturday. Residents responded differently to the turn in the weather, which had started to warm up at least during the day time in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Schoolteacher Muhammad Shahid in the Rawalpindi’s Satellite Town area said that his family switched back to warm clothes.
“Friday night got quite cold outside so I refused to take my children outside if they didn’t put sweaters and jackets on today,” Shahid said, as he shopped in the Commercial Market with his two kids on Saturday evening.
But cab driver Raja Altaf in Islamabad dismissed the cold as the last hurrah of a weak winter season.
“There was a time when the winters used to last till April in Islamabad some years ago,” Altaf said. “But this season has not been that cold at all.”
The Met Office predicted the minimum temperature in Islamabad and Rawalpindi to remain between 3-6 degrees Celsius on Sunday. That is a significant decrease from the minimum 10 degrees Celsius recorded both in Rawalpindi and Islamabad through Friday night.
According to the Met, mainly cold and dry weather is expected in most parts of the country with some rain and snow over some northern regions.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 23rd, 2014.