Torkham, Pakistan
Torkham (Pashto: تورخم, romanized: tūrxam; Urdu: طورخم) is a small mountainous border town next to the Durand Line in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is on the east side of the Torkham Gate, which separates Pakistan and Afghanistan, and about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) west of the Khyber Pass. The Pakistani Torkham lies at the end of the N-5 National Highway, and is connected to Peshawar in the east. A number of facilities are located in the town, including a center of the Pakistan Customs and Federal Investigation Agency.
Torkham
طورخم | |
|---|---|
Town | |
 | |
  Torkham | |
| Coordinates: 34°7′18″N 71°6′11″E | |
| Country |  Pakistan |
| Province |  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa |
| District | Khyber |
| Time zone | UTC+05:00 (PST) |
History
After the Durand Line was created in 1893, the town started with the establishment of a frontier outpost by what was then British India. Prior to that the Jamrud Fort served as the frontier point between Afghanistan and British India. Pakistan took control of the town after its independence in 1947. It recently built a border fence next to the town in order to control insurgency, drug trafficking, smuggling, and other illegal activities.[1]
Climate
With an influence from the local steppe climate, Torkham features a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh). The average temperature in Torkham is 20.3 °C, while the annual precipitation averages 407 mm. June is the driest month with an average rainfall of 8 mm, while the wettest month is March, with an average 82 mm of precipitation.
June is the hottest month of the year with an average temperature of 31.0 °C. The coldest month January has an average temperature of 8.4 °C.
| Climate data for Torkham | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 14.5 (58.1) |
16.3 (61.3) |
20.9 (69.6) |
26.1 (79.0) |
32.2 (90.0) |
38.0 (100.4) |
36.6 (97.9) |
34.8 (94.6) |
33.4 (92.1) |
28.8 (83.8) |
21.9 (71.4) |
16.4 (61.5) |
26.7 (80.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 8.4 (47.1) |
10.5 (50.9) |
15.0 (59.0) |
19.9 (67.8) |
25.6 (78.1) |
31.0 (87.8) |
30.8 (87.4) |
29.5 (85.1) |
27.1 (80.8) |
21.4 (70.5) |
14.5 (58.1) |
9.7 (49.5) |
20.3 (68.5) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 2.3 (36.1) |
4.7 (40.5) |
9.1 (48.4) |
13.7 (56.7) |
18.7 (65.7) |
24.0 (75.2) |
25.1 (77.2) |
24.2 (75.6) |
20.8 (69.4) |
14.1 (57.4) |
7.2 (45.0) |
3.1 (37.6) |
13.9 (57.1) |
| Source: Climate-Data.org[2] | |||||||||||||
See also
References
- "Pakistan-Afghan border: Army completes fencing of 482km border strip". The Express Tribune. 2018-12-29. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
- "Climate: Torkham - Climate-Data.org". Retrieved 9 September 2016.
External links
- Pak-Afghan Border on YouTube (July 18, 2021)
- "Torkham, Pakistan". earth.google.com.