Before every one freaks out totally, caution is required. But unless you freak out you wont be prepared either…

Yes, be prepared, be very very prepared, but it appears the typhoon/cyclone will not strike Sindh/Karachi with full force and not till Saturday. Situation may change, i am talking about what i have seen from the links below.

Rain induced flooding is the real concern here, being blown away by the cyclone will be a lesser concern since it would have toned back down to just a ‘storm’ by the time it reaches Karachi and environs.

Storms estimated path and other related info can be found at these sites. The “KARACHI WILL BE HIT” slogans are a bit old ( a day old) now as the cyclone had continued on it north-western path longer than anticipated. It will be hitting Oman with full force instead and then lose most of its power.

Good resources here for those who want to track the storm.

Links:
1. http://www.hurricanezone.net/
2. http://www.usno.navy.mil/
3. http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/tc_pages/tc_home.html
(this link has an associated KML which you can use to watch the storm progress on google earth, pretty good thing with hourly satellite image updates by various satellites)
4. http://tropicalcyclones.blogspot.com/
5. http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/na201003_flashtool.html?extraprod=flashtool&MR=1
(wunderground’s Flash Tracker is good)

Lastly our own Pak Met:
http://pakmet.com.pk/mon&tc/Tcyclone.pdf

PS. Text on the map such as 04/18Z means, 4th June, 1800hrs Zulu Time or UTC (=GMT). You can calculate Pakistan time by adding 5hrs to the Zulu time.

This expected time is for storm center to be at the given spot. The FRONTS leading the storm will probably bring a change of weather with strong winds and rain and all that which has i hear already started happening in parts of Sindh, but that wont be the real storm itself, which will catch up later. So expect things to happen BEFORE the Zulu time as well!

And Heres a hope and a prayer that we are spared.

BTW I’m not a meteorologist so consume above information with caution and watch out for local news.

In other news, HUNZA, www.local.com.pk/hunza