LAHORE: Fog cleared in Lahore and its adjoining cities on Saturday morning because of strong wind that was brought in by a westerly wave that also gave light rain over the upper parts of the country.

The Met department said the expected rain in upper Punjab would rid it of fog in the next three days. However, central and northern Punjab would remain fog-bound.

The Lahore airport remained closed on Friday night due to dense fog, resulting in cancellation of many flights to the utter inconvenience of passengers. The flight operation, however, resumed on Saturday morning.

Motorway remained closed from Faisalabad to Pindi Bhattian and at Gojra to avert accidents.

Thick fog made travel on the National Highway from Gujranwala to Mian Channu and to Bahawalpur difficult. However, fog cleared from these areas in the afternoon.

The Met department said there were chances of rain-thunderstorm (snowfall over the hills) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan divisions), FATA, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in the next 24 hours.

Upper Punjab (Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Lahore, Faisalabad divisions), Quetta, Zhob divisions of Balochistan and Islamabad will receive isolated rain. Light rain-thunderstorm/drizzle is also expected along Makran and Sindh coast.

Cold and dry weather is expected elsewhere in the country.

Dense foggy conditions are likely to prevail over plain areas of Punjab and upper Sindh during the night and morning hours. Meanwhile, Chitral received 11mm rain, Dir and Mirkhani 9mm, Drosh 7mm, Kalam and Lower Dir 4mm, Parachinar 3mm and Quetta 1mm.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2016