Met Office warns of further aftershocks
Rain, snow predicted in quake-hit areas

ISLAMABAD—Director General Meteorological Department Chaudhry Qamaruzaman Friday said that October 8 earthquake catastrophe was worst in the history of the region both in losses caused to human lives as well as material but the courage, spirit and flow of relief from entire nation and international community would be written in the golden words. He said aftershocks in the affected areas could continue for a couple of months. However, these aftershocks will be of low intensity.
He observed this while addressing a Rehabilitation Conference here organised by a local newspaper. He said aftershocks in Azad Kashmir and NWFP are still being felt and these could continue for some time. But at the end of November the intensity of these aftershocks could reduce, he mentioned. Met Office Director said that the destruction caused by October 8 earthquake was mainly because it was shallow earthquake as the energy released from the epicenter was only 70 kilometers in the depth of the earth.
He also said that the power generated by October 8 earthquake was far greater then the Atomic Bomb blast in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in second World War by the United States. Recalling few of the major earthquakes in sub-continent, he said besides October 8 earthquake the region only saw major quakes in Quetta 1935, Pasni 1945 and Kangra (India in 1905).
He said if we calculate this data we can say October 8 earthquake came after 100 years in Azad Kashmir. Chaudhry Qamar said that aftershocks after Quetta earthquake in 1935 continued for almost six months.
He also said that a quake of 8.6 intensity at the Richter Scale could hit areas ranging from Kashmir to Asam (India) and Burma could come, however we cannot predict when this will happen, as earthquake could not be predicted. But according to theory after 7.6 intensity earthquake, another major quake could not come in short span of time, he underlined. The incident could even occur in centuries, he mentioned.
He also mentioned that more seismic centres will be established in Pakistan to monitor the seismic activity in the region. We are planning to set up 15 Seismic Centres in the country, besides this 8 to 10 Seismic Centres will be established in Muzaffarabad.
Met Office predicted rain and snow over high mountains in the earthquake affected areas in next couple of days. Spokesman of Met Office informed Friday that a westerly wave is expected to approach upper parts of the country on Saturday morning which may cause scattered rain with snow over high mountains in NWFP, Upper Punjab and Kashmir.
Due to the weather system rain/thunderstorm with snow over high mountains (above 7,000 ft) likely in all earthquake affected areas including Muzaffarabad, Rawlakot, Bagh, Chikothi, Abbottabad, Balakot, Mansehra, Batagram, Kohistan, Shangla, Kaghan, Naran and adjoining areas during the next two days. The lowest temperature of -05 degrees centigrade was recorded in Skardu today. During the last 24 hours, mainly dry weather was recorded in most parts of the country.
The minimum temperatures recorded on Friday in major cities were Islamabad 05 C, Lahore 08 C, Karachi 17, Peshawar 09 C, Quetta -02 C, Gilgit -03 C, Muzaffarabad 02 C, Multan 11 C and Faisalabad 010 and Murree -01 C.—Online