Quetta sits in Pakistan’s arid Balochistan province, where annual rainfall is generally low, but the summer monsoon can occasionally push moisture this far west, producing rare but intense storms.
In Balochistan’s highlands, the city’s surrounding mountains can funnel an unusually intense storm into fast-rising streams. Because the region’s dry, rocky terrain sheds water quickly rather than absorbing it, an unusually intense storm can produce flash flooding well out of proportion to the area’s typical dryness, making radar useful for catching a rare storm cell before it develops into a flood risk. Learn more: Flash Flood Warning Signs on Radar · Open the full Rain Map