LAHORE: Thick fog that had forced closure of the motorway at many places on Tuesday night, again began to develop over many cities in the plain areas of the country on Wednesday evening.

The Met department said thick fog that cleared around midday on Wednesday also dropped temperatures in the plain areas, intensifying coldness. Hilly areas are already facing severe cold these days.

Officials said the thick fog also affected movement of vehicular traffic on the National Highway. Motorway was closed to all types of traffic from Lahore to Islamabad, from Lahore to Multan, from Lahore to Pindi Bhattian and to Faisalabad and from Sukkur to Rahim Yar Khan on Tuesday night.

Minimum temperatures in the plain areas remained around five degrees Celsius and low day temperatures made the weather cold.

The lowest minimum temperature was recorded in Skardu that was -12 degrees Celsius. It was followed by Astore -11, Gupis -10, Bagrote -8, Hunza -7, Parachinar, Kalam, Gilgit -5, Kalat, Rawalakot -3, Malamjabba -2, Murree and Bunji -1.

The Met office forecast cloudy weather conditions in upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, north Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan during the next 24 hours. Light rain/ thunderstorm with snowfall is expected at a few places in north Balochistan, upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Malakand Division) and Gilgit Baltistan during the period.

Dense fog is likely to prevail in most plain areas of Punjab and upper Sindh during morning and night hours.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2019