The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), in a recent monsoon rainfall distribution analysis, assessed that climate change has rendered a 100 km spatial shift towards west in the overall monsoon pattern in the country.
Rainfall distribution patterns have not only shifted spatially but also seasonally. The analysis showed that summer monsoon rainfalls have shifted towards late season; similarly winter rain and snowfall have also shifted towards late February and March.
Changing patterns result as emergence of new vulnerable areas to floods which include Khyber Pakhunkhwa (KP), South Eastern Punjab and Central Sindh, an official of Ministry of Climate Change said on Friday.
According to an analysis of fifty-year data, variation in the co-efficient of variability was highest in post-monsoon and pre-monsoon seasons as compared to the winter and monsoon seasons.
It further revealed that most of the northern areas (upper KP and Gilgit Baltistan) remain in the same old pattern except in the post-monsoon period while the central and southern half suffers throughout the year in terms of high rainfall variability, he informed.
It is also observed that more snowfall is received in the month of February as compared to January over recent years.
He further stated that the Ministry of Climate Change in association with UN Habitat, Capital Development Authority and Islamabad Capital Territory Administration undertook a study entitled “Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment of Islamabad”.
The study reveals that the city of Islamabad and its surrounding capital territory areas exposed to a host of factors accelerating climate change impacts such as erratic behavior and marked changes in the intensity, frequency and variability of temperature, precipitation, floods, droughts and cyclones etc.
Extreme weather events recorded so far in Islamabad include highest maximum temperature of 46.6 Celsius on June 24, 2005 and lowest at -4.3 C on December 25, 1984. In 2001, heaviest rainfall of 621mm was recorded in ten hours.
The main findings of the assessment reveal starling facts regarding erratic behaviour and marked changes in the intensity, frequency and variability of temperature, precipitation, floods, droughts and cyclones etc.
The study proposes well thought planning to make Islamabad a climate resilient city, the official informed.
The study also makes recommendations of utilising the present institutional arrangements for a well coordinated effective implementation of suggested plans in Islamabad.
The Ministry official further informed that a Second National Communication (SNC) Preparation of Pakistan’s Second National Communication (SNC) on Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions has also been initiated.
“This will be a three-year study leading to stocktaking of all GHG emissions in Pakistan with options of mitigation and adaptation actions,” he informed.
