It’s May and you should expect using air conditioners in Lahore and other big cities with the mercury crossing or at least touching 40 degree Celsius mark, but how it is possible that you are surviving even without fans when there is no electricity!

Well! It is due to the westerlies affecting the upper parts of the country which bring colder weather to our country. And on Tuesday, it snowed in Ayubia – located in the Galiyat region in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – because of a weak westerly passing over north of the country.

Snowfall in May isn’t a surprise on the higher mountains of northern areas – Gilgit-Baltistan – but this change in the case of Ayubia was surely a strange phenomenon.

Some reports suggested that it happened after 100 years but the Thandiani area in the same region had received snow in May 1995.

Why this change in weather pattern? No one can be sure about the immediate cause but the climate change is a reality and this phenomenon could be attributed to its long-term effects.

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The rains – barring the monsoon season – and snowfall in Pakistan depend upon the westerlies – the weather systems originating in the Mediterranean and then passing over Syria, Iran and Afghanistan to enter Pakistan.

So Pakistan gets rains due to westerlies even in May and June when there is a constant supply of such systems, but there are some conditions. For example, there shouldn’t be a strong high-pressure area over Iran, as the westerlies, if any, in that case, will move in the northerly direction (Central Asia) instead of Afghanistan and Pakistan.