LAHORE, Jan 6: Fog that blanketed Lahore for more than 18 hours added to the chilly weather on Monday, dipping the maximum temperature to the season’s record low 10.3 degrees C.

Major parts of the Punjab, the NWFP and the Northern Areas had been in the grip of the extremely cold weather for over one week.

Lahore’s maximum temperature was 14.3 degrees on Saturday which rose to 15.3 on Sunday due to sunshine in the afternoon.

Visibility reduced to zero at 10pm on Sunday night and it remained so till 5:30m on Monday. Afterwards, it improved little and was only 250 metres at 10:20am. By 2pm, visibility was one kilometres.

Sunday night’s minimum temperature was 6 degrees C but it never increased after dawn. The maximum temperature at 9am was 7 degrees C and it remained so till 11am. At 2pm, the maximum temperature increased to only 9 degrees C and it reached 10.3 degrees C at 4pm.

According to the Met office, fog continued to cover major cities in the Punjab, including Shorkot, Mianwali, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Jhelum, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Multan.

The minimum temperature in Skardu was -12 degrees C. It was followed by Astore -8 degrees C, Kalam -7, Dir and Chitral -1, Islamabad 1, Kamra, Mianwali, Quetta and Bahawalnagar 2 each, Sargodha and Khanpur 4 each, Peshawar 5, and Faisalabad 6.

The Met office expects more fog in many cities in the Punjab and a partly cloudy weather in Kashmir, Gilgit and Skardu during the next 24 hours.

According to the airport inquiry, flight operation remained suspended throughout Sunday night and on Monday morning. Many incoming domestic and international flights were diverted to the other cities, causing inconvenience to the passengers.

Trains, too, arrived at Lahore several hours behind their schedule.