RAWALPINDI: Fog enveloped the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad Sunday morning, disrupting flight and train schedules at the Islamabad International Airport and Rawalpindi Railway Station.

The fog began creeping in on Saturday night, and remained until the early hours of Sunday. Visibility dropped from 200 metres to 20 metres in patches, affecting domestic flights to and from the capital.

“Visibility improved after 9am and many early morning flights were rescheduled,” an airport official said, adding that while flights were delayed they were not cancelled.

An official from the Pakistan Meteorological Department said that the temperature recorded in Islamabad on Sunday was 2°C and 3°C in Rawalpindi. The official forecast frost on Monday, with minimum temperatures down to 1°C.

The Met Office has predicted mainly cold and dry weather in the country. Dense fog is likely to prevail in the plains of Punjab – Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Sialkot, Toba Tek Singh, Hafizabad, Jhang, Faisalabad, Okara, Sahiwal, Multan, Bahawalpur and D.G. Khan – in the morning and at night. Frost is also likely in a few areas.

The fog brought temperatures in the twin cities on Sunday down from 4°C to 2°C after it rained, creating problems for people already facing a shortage of natural gas. Because of the cold weather, gas pressure has been low in many areas in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The fog also disrupted movement on the roads and railways. The Motorway Police said drivers on the motorway were asked to use fog lights and drive slowly because of the dense fog in inner Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“We reached the railway station and had to wait for our relative, as railway officials said that because of the fog in inner Punjab the trains were running slowly,” said Ahmed Malik, while waiting for his brother and his brother’s family coming from Karachi. The train from Lahore scheduled to arrive at 5am reached at 8am. the non-stop train from Lahore was two hours late, while the Awami Express from Karachi reached at 2pm even though it was scheduled to reach at 8am.

Flight number TK-711 to Istanbul, which was scheduled to depart at 6:35am, left at 7:25am, while a flight PK-603 to Gilgit was an hour late, departing at 8:01am instead of 7am. Flight PK-373 to Quetta, meant to depart at 7:30am, left at 9:46am.

Meanwhile, the prediction of frost is bad news for farmers because of the damage it could do to seasonable vegetable and wheat crops in the arid agricultural area.

“The frost may affected crop growth, particularly vegetables such as mustard and spinach. The wheat will also be affected. In these days, light rainfall is better for crops,” Raja Ahmed Ali, a farmer on Chakri Road, said.

Small villages along the G.T. Road where many people keep livestock will also be affected by such weather, he said, and the animals should be kept in covered areas.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2019