LAHORE – A white blanket covered Lahore on Saturday, as massive hailstorm hit the provincial metropolis. Lahoris had rarely seen such weather before and were equally surprised when it started to hail at around 5:15pm and in no time nearly everything in the city including streets, parks, house lawns, rooftops and porches were filled with ice balls.
The hailstorm also occupied parking areas and markets creating problems for motorists and pedestrians to travel from one place to the other. People from all ages expressed their joy over the hail and started playing with ice balls. The massive hailstorm also disrupted traffic and commuters were seen taking shelter at bus stops and other places.
“I have never seen anything like this in 50 years of my life, which I have lived in Lahore”, senior citizen Ibad Ali, a resident of Ghari Shahu said. He said that within two to three minutes, his rooftop was packed with ice balls. “This surly would be remembered for a long period of time”, he added. “I left the match and played in my lawn with ice balls for quite a while”, Asad, a class three student said.
“I wish it happens again”, he added. “Last week I visited Murree to witness snowfall but despite waiting for three days, my desire did not come true but strangely my wish came true in Lahore,” Beaconhouse National University (BNU) student Fahad Sohail said. “Traffic was jammed for an hour due to protests at the Mall Road and the weather was hot but suddenly the weather turned around and it was like a miracle”, lawyer Hussain Malik said.
The Met Office said that it starts hailing when the temperature in the upper part of the atmosphere falls drastically. Meteorologist Arsalan revealed that haling was going on for a few days in the city’s suburbs. He said that hailing continued in various areas of the city including the airport and adjacent localities during the past few days.
The weather expert said that rain is happening in Lahore only and confirmed that city suburbs did not witness hailing. “But this time its happening in Central Lahore only”, Arsalan said. The meteorologist, while predicting the weather for Sunday and Monday said, “Drizzling might continue during the night but on Sunday and Monday, the weather will remain dry and bright.”
He said that 24 millimetre rain has been witnessed in Lahore this month.
