KARACHI: Karachi and other coastal areas of Sindh will face heat wave like weather conditions in the wake of likely landfall of tropical cyclone Vayu at India’s Gujarat coast on Thursday, ARY News reported on Wednesday.
The sea-breeze is likely to remain cutoff on Thursday/Friday which can lead to heatwave like conditions in coastal areas of Sindh including Karachi, Heat Wave Early Warning Centre of the met office said in a statement.
Pakistan Meteorological Department has forecast maximum temperature 40-42 degree Celsius in Karachi on Thursday and 39-40 Celsius on Friday.
The wind direction will remain westerly and northwesterly on Wednesday, while northerly and northeasterly on Thursday and Friday.
The weather experts ruled out any repeat of the conditions of June 2015 when a similar low pressure area had resulted into killing hundreds of people in Karachi and other parts of Sindh.
The met office has advised concerned authorities of Sindh province to remain alert in coming days with regard to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Vayu.
Tropical Cyclone Vayu
The storm that began to show signs of developing past weekend has strengthened with current wind speeds of 102 kilometres per hour, gusting to 130 km/h, making it equivalent to a tropical storm.
According to media reports currently Vayu is 480km southwest of Mumbai and moving to the north.
The warm waters of the Arabian Sea, which are averaging 30 degrees Celsius, will continue to allow Vayu to gradually strengthen before making possible landfall at Gujarat coast of India. Winds could strengthen to as high as 165 km/h with stronger gusts, potentially making the cyclone the equivalent strength of a Category 2 hurricane, experts said.
Cyclone Vayu, is expected to peak on Thursday (13 June), with wind speeds of over 135 kmph over waters of the Arabian sea.
Under the influence of Cyclone Vayu, widespread Dust/Thunder-showers with isolated heavy falls are expected in southeast districts of Sindh (Thatta, Badin and Tharparker districts) on Thursday/Friday, met office forecast said. Scattered/isolated Dust-thundershowers may occur in rest of Sindh during the period, it added.
