KARACHI: A cyclonic storm, ‘Shakhti,’ over the Arabian Sea has weakened and moved 910 kilometers away from Pakistan’s commercial capital of Karachi, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said on Monday.
Winds of 80–90 km per hour were blowing around the storm’s center but were expected to ease to 45–55 km per hour in the northwest and west-central Arabian Sea over the next 24 hours, according to the PMD.
It said sea conditions were expected to remain rough with winds of 70–90 km per hour near the coast in Pakistan’s Sindh province, advising fisherman not to venture deep into the sea till Oct. 7.
“It (cyclone) is likely to move east-southeastwards over the same region and weaken into depression by the next 24 hours,” the PMD said on Monday evening. “Under its influence, isolated light rain is likely to occur in coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan today.”
The development comes after monsoon rains and floods killed at least 1,037 people this year, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The deluges affected more than 3.6 million people across 3,363 villages, with nearly 1.3 million moved to relief camps in safer places in Punjab, the country’s agricultural heartland.
Pakistan has seen erratic changes in its weather patterns which have led to frequent heat waves, untimely rains, storms, cyclones, floods and droughts in recent years. Scientists have blamed the events on human-driven climate change.
In 2022, catastrophic floods submerged one-third of the South Asian country, displaced 30 million people and caused economic losses exceeding $30 billion.
