LAHORE: Smoggy conditions are likely to continue throughout November as there are no chances of rain in the plains of the country; the rain-producing system, which is expected to develop in the next two weeks, will largely be restricted to upper parts of the country and Kashmir.
The warning was delivered by Ajmal Shah, director of the regional Met Office, while talking to Dawn here. “The conditions have developed by two preceding dry months (September and October) and may persist in November. By December, fog is expected to replace smog when temperatures will drop,” he predicted.
He, however, said the severity of smog would vary due to changing temperatures, mostly dropping. With decease in mercury, fog starts developing, pushing smog out. “It means that eyes would be less irritating and breathing issues less severe. However, these would only be variations in generally prevailing smoggy conditions till December,” he explained.
On the other hand, the official forecast by the Met Department said Punjab would remain in the grip of severe smoggy and foggy conditions for the next 48 hours as weather would remain dry.
The spokesman for Punjab Health Department, Akhlaq Ahmad Khan, however claimed that there was no visible rise in the number of patients related to smog.
“Though the general perception is that it will lead to worsening conditions among asthma patients and increased eye-itching, but there has not been any noticeable increase in the number of patients in the province’s hospitals. We conducted an assessment today (Monday) and it was noted that there was no corresponding increase so far. It may be because smog has been a little less severe than last year.”
On the other hand, smoggy conditions not only thickened, but extended to parts of Sindh as well between Sunday and Monday affecting all kinds of traffic in the country. All four motorways – connecting Punjab to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – were closed at different stages in the night in the last 24 hours and opened only a little before noon when visibility improved. By the time of filing this report, motorways were again closed as visibility dropped to zero.
Rail traffic was no better either as all express trains (Karachi, Fareed, Shalimar and Khyber) were delayed for two to six hours. The traffic on Lahore-Islamabad sector was slightly better as almost all trains, barring those coming late from Karachi, were on schedule.
Air traffic also suffered as six flights on Karachi-Rahim Yar Khan-Karachi, Karachi-Sukkur-Islamabad-Sukkur-Karachi and Karachi-Bahawalpur-Karachi routes were cancelled. Schedules and plans for some flights were revised as well.
Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2017
