ISLAMABAD, May 4, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Pakistan experienced its "wettest April 
since 1961", receiving more than twice as much rain as usual for the month, 
the country's weather agency said in a report.

April rainfall was recorded at 59.3 millimetres, "excessively above" the 
normal average of 22.5 millimetres, Pakistan's metrology department said late 
Friday in its monthly climate report.

There were at least 144 deaths in thunderstorms and house collapses due to 
heavy rains in what the report said was the "wettest April since 1961".

Pakistan is increasingly vulnerable to unpredictable weather, as well as 
often destructive monsoon rains that usually arrive in July.

In the summer of 2022, a third of Pakistan was submerged by unprecedented 
monsoon rains that displaced millions of people and cost the country $30 
billion in damage and economic losses, according to a World Bank estimate.

"Climate change is a major factor that is influencing the erratic weather 
patterns in our region," Zaheer Ahmad Babar, spokesperson for the Pakistan 
Meteorological Department, said while commenting on the report.

While much of Asia is sweltering due to heat waves, Pakistan's national 
monthly temperature for April was 23.67 degrees Celsius (74 degrees 
Fahrenheit) 0.87 degrees lower than the average of 24.54, the report noted.

The highest rainfall was recorded in the southwestern province of Balochistan 
with 473 percent more than average.

The South Asian nation has the world's fifth-largest population and is 
responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, 
according to officials, but is highly vulnerable to extreme weather 
exacerbated by global warming.

The largest death toll was reported in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 
84 people died, including 38 children, and more than 3,500 homes were 
damaged.

Last month UNICEF called for urgent action to save children on the frontlines 
of climate change.

"Children in Pakistan are at "extremely high risk" of the impacts of the 
climate crisis," the UN agency said in a statement. 

"Despite significant aid efforts, 9.6 million children were still in need of 
humanitarian assistance in flood affected areas by December 2023," it added.

In some areas of Punjab, the most populous province and the breadbasket of a 
country facing an economic crisis, heavy rains and hailstorms caused damage 
to the wheat harvest, a staple food source.