Pakistan climate is dominated by Tropical air mass (due to low latitude and warm weather) and is mostly Continental (although one part of it is in contact with the ocean, the land is mostly inland). Towards the coast, the climate varies from warm to breezy, however as the country progresses more inland, there are higher elevations and generally cooler temperatures. The changing of the seasons is characterized by a cold, dry winter, a hot and dry summer, and a wet summer of monsoons. Pakistan is also in close proximity to the Arabian Sea and is affected by the trade winds. The most abundant source of rainfall in Pakistan is in the form of the southwest monsoon, a natural occurrence that causes intense floods.
Major indicators of climate change in various parts of Pakistan complies with the global trend of positive increase both in maximum and minimum temperatures. However there are highly heterogeneous change patterns observed in precipitation regime owing to its high inter-annual variability in the region and bi-model precipitation pattern in the country. Pakistan faces all types of hydro-meteorological hazards ranging from flash floods, riverine floods, urban floods as well as agricultural and urban droughts.
