BOONI: Intermittent rains continuing for the last over 10 days across Chitral have made the weather unprecedentedly cool for the month of May.
According to Met Office, the daytime maximum temperature in Chitral hovered round 20 degrees centigrade.
A satellite imaginary on the website of the Pakistan Meteorological Department on Saturday showed cloud concentration in upper parts of Pakistan with chances of rains and thunder storms in isolated parts of the Malakand Division.
A resident of Yarkhun told ChitralToday that he had not seen such a low temperature in the third week of May in the past. When this report was filed at around 1pm, it was raining in Booni and nearby areas. The weather was cloudy in upper areas while the Chitral town was also about to receive another wet spell.
Local people in Booni told ChitralToday that after a prolonged dry spell throughout the winter there were apprehensions about a drought-like situation especially in water-scarcity areas. Any heavy rain after a prolonged dry spell could trigger flash floods bringing destruction to properties and crops, they said.
The sunny days in May and June could also lead to fast melting of glaciers and snow over the mountains leading not only to flash floods but also to draining out of the snow on which most of villages depended for irrigation purposes.
But the ongoing wet spell has brought relief to the farmers especially in villages that fed on seasonal streams and have no major glaciers as sources of water. These rains have occurred at a time when the crops particularly that of wheat needed water the most. Barren lands and pastures have also gotten the much needed rainwater that has turned them green.
With slow and persistent rain, soil and dust is settled down in hilly and mountainous areas minimizing the chances of floods later in the summer.
Throughout the rainy days, there were no major disruptions to routine life or traffic though the Chitral-Mastuj road was reportedly closed for a few hours due to high volume of water in streams in a number of villages such as Parwak or rockfalls some where else.–Javed Khan
