Pakistan’s climate is continental as a whole, but the high mountains to the north give its climate a peculiar shape.
The high mountain ranges of the Himalayas in northern Pakistan influence Pakistan’s climate in several ways.
Soft winters
Probably the most pronounced effect of the great northern mountain ranges on the climate of Pakistani cities is that Pakistani cities are spared from the intense cold of Central Asia during the winter season. To cite a typical example, Multan and Shanghai are almost on the same parallel, but there is a large temperature difference between their winter temperatures. Multan has a winter temperature of 54 F, while in Shanghai it is 38 F. This is because the very high mountains in the north do not allow cold air to penetrate Pakistan. While in the case of Shanghai, there is no mountain barrier to protect it from the cold and fierce North Siberian wind.
Similarly, Tashkent in Uzbekistan, located on the other side of the mountains, faces the full fury of the Central Asian wind with temperatures dropping as low as 30 F in winter, while in Islamabad the winter temperature hovers around 50 F – thanks to the Himalayan protective shield. To the north.
Monsoon rains
The other most important influence of high mountains is the direction and containment of the monsoon winds. If there were no mountains to the north, there would have been no monsoon. The monsoons from the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean are blocked by the high mountains in the north and are forced to rise, thus reaching a temperature of condensation and abundant rainfall.
Other neighboring countries located at almost the same latitude do not have a rainy season like the monsoon. Afghanistan and Iran are the examples. In these countries, the summer heat continues to increase until the end of July and, in some cases, until August and then gradually decreases in the following months. While, on the other hand, due to the influence of very high mountains in northern Pakistan, monsoon winds can lower the temperature considerably in late June and the following July, August and September are much colder than if there were there had been no monsoon.
In short, the Himalayan mountains to the north of Pakistan influence and alter the country’s climate to a considerable degree.
