ISLAMABAD - An official of the meteorological department has said that weather patterns in coastal areas of the country are changing due to rise in temperature.
The official said that a number of climate changes including cyclones, monsoon flooding, rise in the sea level, extreme hot temperatures and droughts are currently affecting the 990 kilometres long coastal belt of Pakistan. He said that scientists have predicted that by the year 2060, the average temperature of the area would increase from 1.4 to 3.7 degree Celsius. "This change in temperature could have a significant impact on wheat and rice crops, besides the water supply of the entire country," he said. He said that Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world and is ranked at 135 in carbon dioxide emissions. He said annual rate of deforestation ranged between 4 to 6 pc while annual cost of restoring degraded environment was around US $5.2billion. "There was an increase in average temperature from 0.6 to 1.0 degrees Celsius along the coastal belt while the sea level had been rising by around 1.2 millimetres per year for the last 50 years," he informed.
He said these changes are directly affecting the weather pattern along Pakistan's coast and resultantly extreme events such as wind storms and tropical cyclones had become more frequent and of greater intensity than seen in the past.