LAHORE, Dec 10: Most parts of Punjab are expected to experience a spell of dense fog from Sunday (tomorrow) due to persistent dry weather, decreasing temperatures and high trend of humidity in the air. The Pakistan Meteorological Department said on Friday the spell of dense fog was likely to persist for at least 10 days because there was no chance of rain in the country during this period.

Upper parts of the province have already been experiencing shallow foggy weather conditions during early mornings for the last two days.

The Met office says owing to the prevailing dry weather conditions, with decreasing temperatures and high trend of humidity, the probability of occurrence of dense and prolonged fog in Punjab has increased during the coming days. The shallow fog is expected to become dense during the weekend, enveloping most parts of Punjab from Sunday.

The Met office expects dense fog over northeast Punjab (Lahore and Gujranwala divisions) on Saturday morning. Some sectors of Motorway (M2: Lahore-Pindi Bhattian, M3: Pindi Bhattian-Faisalabad) and National Highway (N5: Lahore-Gujrat and Gujranwala-Sialkot) may remain covered with dense fog on Saturday morning (from 5am to 10am). Moderate and shallow patches of fog are likely to develop over Peshawar Motorway (Swabi-Charsada- Noshehra sectors).

The dense fog is expected to prevail over most parts of eastern and central Punjab (Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, and Bahawalpur divisions) from Sunday to Saturday (mid-nights to early mornings). Moderate and shallow fog is also expected in Multan and Sukkur divisions during this period.

Most sectors of motorways (M1, M2 and M3) and the National Highway may remain blanketed with dense fog during the coming week (from late-nights to early mornings).

The Met department has advised motorists to remain careful during the foggy weather conditions.

Meanwhile, temperatures further dropped on Friday, increasing the intensity of cold weather almost everywhere in the country.

Lahore witnessed another misty morning as the night's minimum temperature dropped from Thursday's 5.5 degrees Celsius to 4.5 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature was 21 degrees Celsius.

Skardu was the coldest place in the country with a minimum temperature of -9.8 degrees Celsius. The minimum temperature in Islamabad was 2.5 degrees Celsius.