Karachi is likely to experience a heatwave from May 5 till May 8, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department’s (PMD) forecast on Friday.
As per a heat wave alert issued on the PMD website, the daytime temperature will range from 40 to 42 degrees Celsius during this period.
The alert added that the wind direction will be “generally Northwest/West turning to Southwest during the evening”.
Sardar Sarfaraz from the Met department explained that it is typically the wind blowing from the sea that causes the temperature in the city to remain cool.
“However, the sea breeze will remain suspended during this time and will instead be replaced with dry winds from Balochistan. This will cause the temperature to rise,” he said.
He added that the metropolitan city is likely to experience a moderate heatwave during this period with the temperature rising as high as 40 degrees Celsius on May 5 and 42 degrees Celsius between May 6 and May 8.
In 2015, Karachi experienced the deadliest heatwave Pakistan had seen in over 50 years.
Starting June 19 that year, the coastal city witnessed sweltering heat that continued for more than five days and in its wake left over 1,200 people dead and 40,000 suffering from heatstroke and heat exhaustion.
