LAHORE: Winter intensified in the country as rain and snowfall over the hills continued for the second day running in many cities on Tuesday.

The Met department reported rain in Rawalpindi-Islamabad and rain and snowfall in Murree, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and KP.

In Lahore, it remained cloudy throughout the day, lowering the maximum temperature to 16 degrees Celsius. Shallow fog persisted during the morning hours.

The Met department forecast thick fog in Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan during the early hours of Wednesday.

It said Islamabad recorded 50mm of rain, Rawalpindi 41mm, Murree 37mm, Sialkot Cantt 17mm, Mangla, Jhelum 10mm, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin 9mm, Gujranwala and Shorkot 6mm, Joharabad 5mm, Okara 4mm, Sargodha 3mm and Kasur 2mm.

In Kashmir, Muzaffarabad recorded 37mm of rain, Rawlakot 29mm, Garidupatta 24mm and Kotli 19mm.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower Dir recorded 32mm, Dir 30mm, Mirkhani 29mm, Pattan 26mm, Risalpur 25mm, Kakul 21mm, Cherat, Balakot 20mm, Chitral 16mm, Saidu Sharif 15mm, Kalam, Malamjabba 13mm, Peshawar 12mm, Kohat 6mm and Parachinar 8mm.

Malamjabba also received 8” snow, Kalam 7”,

Murree 6”, Saidu Sharif 3” and Astore 2”.

More rain-thunderstorm with snowfall over the hills (with hailstorm) is expected at scattered places in upper KP (Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat divisions), Fata, upper Punjab (Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujranwala and Sargodha divisions), Islamabad, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in the next 24 hours (Wednesday). Cold weather in Sindh and Balochistan and foggy conditions over plain areas of Punjab and upper Sindh are also expected.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2017