Climate of Northern Areas

The climate of the Northern Areas is greatly influenced by the presence of high mountain systems which create rain shadows in some places and high precipitation in others. In the eastern part of the area is found a moist temperate zone of the western Himalayas but moving northwestward the Karakorams and the Hindukush ranges present a much drier environment.

Climatically the Karakoram and Hindukush create a barrier between the monsoon-dominated lands of South Asia to their south and the vast deserts of Central Asia to their north. Therefore during the summer the area here is influenced by the residue of the monsoon system coming from south and during the winter and spring it is influenced by westerly depressions originating in the Mediterranean and Caspian seas. But even in the summer some precipitation on higher elevations seems to result from these westerly air masses (Wake, 1987). Monsoons, when they manage to penetrate this far north, can cause significant precipitation during the summer months.

Within the area, climate varies between the lowlands and valleys and the mountains. The valleys are dry with annual precipitation around 200 mm but totals can go up as high as 600 mm at elevations of 13,000 ft (ibid.). Glacial studies above 16,000 ft suggest precipitation in the order of 2000 mm annually there, mostly in the form of snow (Kreutzmann, 2000). Thus the valleys present desert-like conditions with no possibility for barani (rain-fed) agriculture while numerous glaciers form and accumulate in the higher reaches of the mountains.

There is a temperature maxima in July/August with an average of 20-25C across the valleys (in some places a maximum of 400C can occasionally be reached) and a temperature minima in January with an average of -10-00C. Thus the range of temperature between summer and winter can be as much as 25C.

Climate records (daily maximum and minimum temperature and rainfall) for the last 100 years for Gilgit and Skardu are available with the Meteorological Department in Lahore. The Met Department in Gilgit also has post-independence records of monthly maximum and minimum temperature and precipitation for Gilgit, Skardu, Astore, Bunji, Drosh and Dir. The temperature data for Gilgit and Skardu are given for the past decade as a sample of the weather in the two different parts of the Northern Areas. It seems that the mean annual maximum temperature has increased since about 2000 in both places.
Table. Monthly mean maximum temperature (oC) at Gilgit and Skardu

(A) Gilgit

(B) Skardu

Additionally, WAPDA operates a network of climate stations measuring daily temperature and precipitation in the Northern Areas, some for as long as 30 years, in places like Yugo, Kachura, Doyien, Besham and Karimabad.

In the 1990s, the International Development Research Center (IDRC), CIDA and WAPDA, under the latter’s Snow and Ice Hydrology Project (SIHP), set up a program of snow and ice measurement in northern Pakistan. This consists of 18 automated stations in remote locations (highest at Khunjerab at 14,500 ft) which send precipitation, temperature, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity and other variables via meteor burst transmission to WAPDA headquarters in Lahore (Rizvi, 2001). The aim of these stations is to develop a snowmelt forecasting system to estimate water inflows to Mangla and Tarbela, as well as into the Kabul River (Daniyal Hashmi, Director, Snow & Ice Hydrology Project, WAPDA, Lahore, pers. comm.)

Table 2 lists the climate stations and their location in the Northern Areas.
Table 2. Location of climate stations in Northern Areas

P= precipitation T=temperature
Whiteman, P.T.S. 1985. Mountain Oases: a technical report of agricultural studies in Gilgit district, Northern Areas, Pakistan, FAO/UNDP.
Source: Archer, D. R. 2001. The climate and hydrology of northern Pakistan with respect to assessment of flood risks to hydropower schemes. Report by GTZ/WAPDA.

The following table shows the location of the WAPDA automated weather stations in the Northern Areas.
Table . Location of automated weather stations in Northern Pakistan

Source: WAPDA, Lahore, pers. comm.