Wet weather pattern permeates through dry summer months

The unusual weather pattern attributed to El-Nino factor by the weather pundits, continues to pervade through the typically dry and hot summer months of Islamabad.

The humid weather conditions and overcast skies in the federalcapital have been the cause of intermittent clouds outburst through the often sultry and arid month of May, elongating the sprouting season of fruit saplings, summer vegetables, besides delaying floral decay.

These overcast conditions have not only taken the weather experts aback with their wobbly pattern, but also brought relief to the residents of the federal capital and the adjacent Rawalpindi by shutting the strong, piercing and blazing streaks of summer Sun with setting of the summer season.

The normal day temperature on Sunday dipped down after another spell of moderate downpour, and was recorded hovering below 30 degree Celsius, reminiscent of the post-spring like conditions, suitable for the vegetation and fruit-bearing trees to multiply and increase the ripened yield.

“Surely the prevailing conditions add to moisture in the dried out soil in the Potohar region, having impacts upon the tomato like crops to bear more and more, besides increasing size of the fruit,” Mazhar Janjua, an agriculturalist running a private nursery, opined.

But such a scenario proving boon for residents, turned out to be bane for the farmers’ community who were ready to reap the fruits of their labour in the form of matured wheat crop.

“We have just harvested our wheat yield and stored it in the open field under traditional storage method but the strong gales associated with continuous showers on days in and days out , are not going well with our plans,” a worried and weary looking land owner, Tabbasum Ghulam, who owned fertile chunks of land in Sihala area commented with his nervous eyes fixed on black cumulus clouds shrouding the nearby hills.

However, at the same fleeting moment of his concerns, he struck a note of optimism that the rainy spells would boost the growth of a variety of summer vegetables ranging from bitter, sweet gourd to tinda (Indian round gourd) and okara (lady finger).

This simpatico relationship between weather and flora also adds some flickering and tantalizing colours to a number of late sprouting flowers like petunia, dahlia, freesia, day lilies, cosmos, pansy and roses etc.

A mushroom of plants nurseries on the Islamabad Highway which offer large varieties of fruit saplings, herbs, shrubs, vines, climbers and flowers at affordable prices, are also witnessing an increase in number of buyers.

The unexpected seasonal activity in these days, has added to a surge in number of our customers, mainly among them seeking fruit saplings of orange, lemons, grape wines, apple, apricot etc, a young curator at Mardan nursery farm added.

The late blooming petunia giants, red and blue stars, Pakistani dahlia, red, purple and yellow freesia and rose climbers also reminds professor Sajjad Khattak about great romantic English poet John Keats’ Ode to Spring in which he compared late spring conditions with a damsel carrying post-spring loads in the midst of fields, laden with full blown fruits and flowers of hazel nuts, gourds and apples.