LAHORE: Dense fog once again blanketed the plains of Punjab and adjoining areas of Sindh on Wednes­day, disrupting rail, road and air traffic and badly affecting life.

The fog also lowered temperatures in the affected plain areas, introducing a bite in the air. It was hampering traffic from Kharian in Punjab to Sukkur in Sindh, covering cities like Okara, Mian Channu, Multan, Bahawal­pur and Rahim Yar Khan.

Lahore remained fog-bou­nd on Tuesday night and during most parts of Wed­nesday morning. It again came up on the city in the late afternoon, reducing visibility to zero in its suburbs and darkening roads much before sunset, restricting free movement of vehicular traffic.

Lahore airport had to be closed late on Tuesday night due to unfavourable aviation conditions generated by dense fog, causing a great deal of inconvenience to passengers. According to PIA, 20 domestic and international flights had to be either cancelled or delayed be­cause of poor visibility at the airport.

Flights to Multan, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Karachi and Bangkok were delayed. The flight operations resumed on Wednesday morning, but the authorities continued to clear the backlog throughout the day.

Motorway Police spokesman Imran Shah said the motorway was closed at various points soon after fog reduced visibility to nil early on Tuesday night. Its Lahore-Kot Momin, Pindi Bhattian-Faisalabad and Faisalabad-Gojra portions remained closed to all types of traffic on Tuesday night and were opened at 11am on Wednesday, allowing movement of vehicular traffic in convoys to avoid accidents.

As fog once again thickened over many places in central and northwestern Punjab on Wednesday evening, the authorities closed the motorway from Lahore to Pindi Bhattian and Faisalabad.

Mr Shah also reported thick fog on the national highway from Kharian to Kala Shah Kaku and from Pattoki to Okara and Sahiwal, saying the movement of vehicular traffic at these places had become risky because of very poor visibility.

Meanwhile, temperatures dropped in the plains across the country as the fog blocked the sun from warming the affected cities. The Met department expected the minimum temperature to further drop in Lahore and other cities in the province on Wednesday night. Skardu was the coldest place in the country with minus 10 degrees Celsius minimum temperature.

The Met department said a shallow westerly wave was likely to approach northwestern parts of the country on Thursday and might persist in the following 24 hours.

It was likely to generate rain-thunderstorm (with snowfall over the hills) at isolated places in Fata, Quetta and Zhob divisions over the next 24 hours, dropping temperatures in the plains of the country. Dense foggy conditions were likely to continue over plain areas of Punjab and upper Sindh on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2018