By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: A rare monsoon cyclone, Asna, has weakened in the Arabian Sea and moved away westward from Sindh’s coastal belt, easing the threat of landfall, the Met office said on Saturday.
Asna is currently located about 200 km southwest of Karachi and is tracking further west-southwestwards towards Oman.
“The Cyclonic Storm Asna over the northeast Arabian Sea off Sindh coast has moved further westward during past 9 hours and now lies at around Latitude 23.6 N and Longitude 65.7 E at a distance of about 200km southwest of Karachi, 220km south-southeast of Ormara and 380km southeast of Gwadar,” Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said in its updated alert. “The system is likely to track further west-southwestwards.”
The last monsoon cyclone to form in the Arabian Sea was in 1976, making Asna a rare weather event.
The PMD said the system will likely weaken further and dissipate in the sea, posing no significant threat to the Sindh coastal belt, including Karachi. The PMD has downgraded the threat of Asna making landfall in Sindh province, easing earlier warnings of urban flooding, fishing disruptions, and coastal evacuations.
Asna’s influence will bring rain-thundershowers with heavy falls and squally winds of 60-70 km/h (gusting 80 km/h) to Sindh’s Karachi division and districts of Badin, Thatta, Sujawal, Hyderabad, T.M Khan, T.A Yar, Matiari, Jamshoro, and Dadu, as well as Balochistan’s Hub, Lasbella, Awaran, Keach, and Gwadar districts.
Heavy rainfall may cause waterlogging in low-lying areas of the Makran coast, while sea conditions will remain rough to very rough.
“Sea conditions are likely to remain rough/very rough with squally winds of 60-70 Km/hour gusting 80Km/hour. Fishermen of Sindh are advised not to venture into the sea today and those of Balochistan till tomorrow,” the PMD said.
The PMD’s cyclone warning centre closely monitors the system and will issue updates accordingly.
Heavy rain lashed Karachi on Saturday, inundating several areas, including the business district of II Chundrigar Road and Saddar and surrounding localities. Other areas affected by the downpour included the city’s main boulevard Sharea Faisal, which received heavy rain.
Heavy monsoon rains killed at least two dozen people across Pakistan on Friday, bringing the total death toll from rain-related incidents since July to 285, officials said on Friday.
In Sindh province, nine people died and over 30 were injured as rains caused widespread destruction, breaching dykes and sweeping away mud houses in Jamshoro, Dadu, and Mirpurkhas districts.
In Balochistan, 13 people were swept away in flash floods, with two still missing, while in Upper Dir, 13 members of a family died when their home collapsed due to a landslide.
Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climate change, and this year’s monsoon season has been particularly deadly. The country recorded its wettest April since 1961, followed by fatal heatwaves in May and June.
Heavy rains triggered floods that killed over 1,700 people, inflicted $30 billion in economic losses, and affected 30 million people in 2022.
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