2025 average rainfall ~3% below normal despite severe flooding episodes.
Source
Pakistan Economic Survey — https://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapter_26/Highlights_of_the_PES_2026.pdf. Verified in source set / retroactive normalization pending.
What it proves
Annual averages can conceal climate extremes.
What it does not prove: A 3% shortfall against normal is within ordinary year-to-year variation and proves nothing about drying; its value is that a near-normal national annual total coexisted with severe floods. It says nothing about where or when the rain fell, which is what determines flood damage.
Memory hook: 3% below normal rainfall → the flood year that looked average on the annual sheet
Rebuts the claim: "Rainfall was near normal, so 2025's flooding was not a climate signal" — the national average conceals the distribution that caused it.