Adil Najam
If you put this question – What is the Weather in Pakistan Like? – into Google Search, the top hit you get is a site called Answers.com and their answers is: “The weather in Pakistan is very hot especially in the summer but as it comes to September to about December it’s like living in the north pole!!” Maybe you have a better answer. If you do not, these interesting graphics from WeatherSpark.com might help.
Average and Recent (2010) Weather in Islamabad
Being the weather geek that I am, I have enjoyed exploring the weather patterns for various parts of Pakistan at this very interesting site Here I am sharing screen-shots of the average and recent (for 2010) weather in the Federal Capital and four major cities of Pakistan – Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, and Quetta. (I use the 2010 calendar year rather than up to this year so that the weather cycle is more clear in annual terms we are familiar with; click on image to go to the city’s site).
Average and Recent (2010) Weather in Karachi
Average and Recent (2010) Weather in Lahore
Average and Recent (2010) Weather in Peshawar
Recent (2010) Weather in Quetta
Reading these have to be done carefully (remember, we are dealing with averages as well as extremes of the weather each day and that adds up to ‘climate’ and the ‘feel’ we live through in more complex ways than simple charts can convey. But I do think these charts do convey a better idea that Answers.com did. And, more importantly, it also throws up some surprises. The thanda ilaqas we are familiar with can have some pretty garam days, and vice versa.
I am not fully sure how reliable all the readings are, especially for Quetta since the website did not have the average readings for Quetta and seemed to be linking the readings to Kandahar airport in Afghanistan (I know we have pretty reliable readings for Quetta that go quite far back in time so am assuming this is a quirk in the website). Also, please note that ‘Precipitation type’ refers to period of rainfall (and intensity is also conveyed), and not just amount of rainfall in milimeters. This, I think, is an interesting measure. As is hours of sunlight, and the ColorTemp band, which may be the most useful part of these for a quick reading.
I am still exploring these figures and hope you will too. I am sure we can give internet surfers a better notion of what the weather in Pakistan really like than Answers.com could!
But 2010 is a huge weather Anomaly in Pakistan… First we received a Mild Typhoon (which I believe was a major contributor to the crazy rains which followed and resulted in Devastating Floods… I guess 1999 to 2009 averages were a better representative
“What is the weather in Pakistan like?”
Here in Islamabad, at this moment, 9:30 in the morning, it’s simply wonderful. The outside temperature is 20.6 C or 69 F, humidity is 56 percent and the sky is cloudless. Besides, there are miles of roses along the major roads, tons of Kachnars in full bloom (our cherry blossoms) and acres of pansies, petunias — and wild marijuana — growing all round. To top it all, literally, the Margalla hills, in different shades of green, clear of any haze or mist, preside over the scene. What else could you want? Except perhaps, in the words of Mian Mohammad Bakhsh:
باغ بہاراں، تے گلزاراں، بن یاراں کس کاری؟
People, before we get too caught up in the erroneous answers on websites like answers.com, remember that the vast majority of answers on such websites are written by writers who are paid a very small sum of money to write such answers. The idea is to have answers to questions to drive traffic to the website. This is a phneomenon where the objective is not necessarily to give the right answer but rather to have a search engine pick up that your website has the answer. Makes your website more desirable to ad buyers etc.
We have pitch dark nights and shiny days. We have four full seasons round the year. Hot summers, colorful green spring, cool chilly winters and clear autumn. At any one point in time, we have a variety of weather as we move from South to the North of the country.
Aren’t we the lucky as a nation?
Interesting to see historical weather patterns. From a quick glance, I can tell that the weather pattern in Karachi hasn’t changed in the last 60 years.
With all the talk about global climate change, one would expect to see some discernible change, but then again we are talking about mean temperatures, and perhaps a more careful study of the data would reveal something.