The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Monday warned that air quality in western parts of the country could deteriorate due to pollutants potentially carried by winds from Iran following recent United States (US) and Israeli strikes on the country’s oil sites.

 

“Due to the recent situation in Iran, the winds may carry pollutants and deteriorate air quality in the western parts of the country,” PMD said in a press release.

 

Iran, Pakistan’s western neighbour, has been involved in a conflict with the US and Israel since the illegal February 28 operations that resulted in the assassination of its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 

 

The attacks escalated further on March 7, when major airstrikes targeted Tehran’s refineries and fuel depots, covering parts of the city in black smoke and oily rain.

 

The Iranian Red Crescent Society warned residents that exposure to “significant quantities of toxic hydrocarbons, sulfur and nitrogen oxides” could cause chemical burns and lung injuries.

 

Additional strikes reportedly hit five oil facilities in and around Tehran, according to an official from the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company.

 

The PMD also forecast rain and thunderstorms in Pakistan’s upper regions under the influence of a westerly wave approaching Monday evening, and expected to continue until March 12. 

 

The department said partly cloudy to cloudy conditions with “moderate rain-wind-thunderstorm (few heavy falls at times)” were likely in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts including Dir, Kohistan, Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Battagram, Buner, Malakand, Mansehra, Abbottabad and Haripur.

 

Similar weather was expected in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) from Monday evening through March 12. Light rain with wind or thunderstorms was also forecast for March 10 and 11 in Khyber, Mohmand, Peshawar, Swabi, Mardan, Charsadda, Nowshera, Bajaur, Bannu, Waziristan, Orakzai, Kurram, Kohat, Hangu and Mianwali.

 

In Islamabad, the Potohar region, Murree, Galliyat, and surrounding areas, rain-wind/thunderstorm was expected from Monday night to March 11, with isolated hailstorms possible in the upper parts of the country.

 

PMD indicated that daytime temperatures in upper regions could drop by three to four degrees Celsius. 

 

It also cautioned that landslides might occur in vulnerable areas of upper KP, GB and AJK, and advised tourists to avoid non-essential travel and farmers to manage crops according to the prevailing weather conditions.