Cyclonic Storm ASNA moves away of Karachi, at 230km distance

KARACHI: Cyclonic Storm ‘Asna’ has moved away from Karachi’s coastal belt and located at the distance of 230km from the city in southwest, according to a meteorologist.

The cyclone could landfall on September 1st night or September 02 at coastal belt of Oman, Meteorologist Anjum Nazeer said.

“Cyclone Asna could still influence Karachi’s weather and light to heavy rainfall has been expected in city until tonight”, Meteorologist Anjum Nazeer said.

The winds with 40-50 Km/hour speed could blow in the city today, weather expert said.

Cyclone Asna in its westward trajectory could affect Baluchistan’s coastal belt with rainfall and coastal flooding, he said.

The cyclone could landfall on Sunday night or Monday at the Oman coastal belt.

“Karachi’s weather is expected to remain cloudy or partly cloudy with likely light rainfall for next few days,” he predicted.

Sindh’s fishermen have been advised not to venture into sea on Saturday (today) and those of Baluchistan till tomorrow (Sunday).

In its advisory earlier, PMD said that during past 9 hours the cyclone moved westward and now lies at around Latitude 23.6 N and Longitude 65.7 E at a distance at 200km southwest of Karachi, 220km south-southeast of Ormara and 380km southeast of Gwadar. The system is likely to track further west-southwestwards.

The cyclone was at about 120km south of Karachi on Friday night as per an earlier alert.

Under the cyclone’s influence, rain-thundershowers with few heavy falls, accompanied with squally winds with 60-70Km/hour gusting to 80Km/hour, likely in Karachi, Badin, Thatta, Sujawal, Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Matiari, Jamshoro and Dadu districts of Sindh today evening/night, while in Hub, Lasbella, Awaran, Kech and Gwadar districts of Balochistan till tomorrow night.

Heavy rains may create water logging in low lying areas of Makran coast.

Sea conditions are likely to remain rough to very rough with squally winds of 60-70 Km/hour gusting 80Km/hour.

Sindh’s fishermen have been advised not to venture into sea on Saturday (today) and those of Balochistan till tomorrow (Sunday).

The concerned authorities have been advised to keep them abreast through PMD advisory.

Strong cyclonic winds at a Karachi port caused several containers to topple. The incident occurred at the South Asia Port Terminal also known among the locals as China Port.

The containers, which were empty, could not withstand the force of the high winds and were overturned. However, there were no reports of any injuries or financial losses as a result of the incident.

The incident, however, didn’t disrupt the port operations, port sources said.