RAWALPINDI: Most parts of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad received heavy to light rain on Saturday morning and evening, bringing respite from the heatwave.

In the last four days, mercury remained above 40 degrees Celsius with the maximum 43 degrees recorded on Thursday.

The rain on Saturday brought down the temperature by three degrees Celsius to 34 degrees in the federal capital and garrison city.

The Meteorological Department recorded 27mm of rain at Saidpur, 7mm at Golra, 23mm at Zero Point Islamabad; 6mm at Chaklala and 4mm at Kutchery in Rawalpindi. It forecast more rain and cool winds sweeping northern parts of the country during the next 24 hours.

According to an official at the Met Office, moist currents from Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal were penetrating upper and central parts of the country. A westerly wave is also affecting upper parts of the country.

He said that dust-windstormrain/thundershower was expected in Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad, upper Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Isolated heavy rain is likely in Kashmir, Potohar region andupper KP during the period.

However, he said partly cloudy weather with dust storm-rain/ thundershower was likely at isolated places in southeast Sindh.

Hot and humid weather is expected in other parts of the country, he said.

The rain started at 5:30am and continued for 20 minutes in different areas of Islamabad, especially Saidpur, Zero Point and Golra while no rain was reported in Bokra and other parts.

The same situation was witnessed in Rawalpindi whereareas from Chur Chowk on Peshawar Road to Saddar and Kutchery received rain while light rain occurred in Chaklala Scheme-III and no rain in Media Town, PWD and Islamabad Expressway and DH A.

However, in the evening gusty winds cooled down the weather followed by heavy rain in Zero Point and surrounding areas.

There was no rain in most parts of the twin cities.

`It is a blessing as we were suffering from heatwave for the last week. We are enjoying the coolweather,` said Malik Safeer, a resident of Saddar.

Irshad Ahmed, of Murree Road, said that power loadshedding had made the lives of citizens miserable. Moreover, there was also water shortage in many areas.

He said that after the rain, the residents were hopeful that the water shortage would end. He said heatwave and water shortage had been the main issues for the residents for the last one month.

When contacted, WasaManaging Director Saleem Ashraf said there was a dire need for more rains to fill dams for meeting water requirements.

`There is enough water in Rawal Dam for more than 100 days and the monsoon and premonsoon rains will fill dams,` he said.

He added that work on Leh Nullah cleanliness had been started to avoid flooding in the monsoon. He said Wasa had removed all hurdles from Leh Nullah to ensure smooth flow of rainwater.