LAHORE, Dec 25: Dense fog descending on the city on Tuesday night further dropped the temperature and lowered visibility on roads. Fog also continued to blanket the plains of Punjab and Sindh, keeping temperatures low and weather extremely cold.

Motorway remained close from Pindi Bhattian to Lahore during the early hours of Tuesday because of thick fog. Poor visibility also forced slow movement of vehicular traffic on the national highway.

The Met Office said fog would continue to blanket the plains till December 28 when a westerly wave was expected to generate rain and snowfall over the upper parts of the country and northern Punjab. The rainy spell would last for two days to be followed by another round of foggy weather in the plains, it added.

In Lahore, dense fog began covering the city early on Monday night, greatly affecting flight schedule and trains movement.

Roads wore a deserted look because of the cold wind and thick fog that cleared around 11am on Tuesday, allowing the sun to warm up the city afterwards a bit.

Fog again descended rather suddenly around 10:30pm and the Met Office expected it to thicken during the night.

The maximum temperature of the city was 17 degrees C and the minimum 5 degrees C.      The Met Office also reported dense fog in Faisalabad, Multan, Okara, Sahiwal, Jhelum, Mangla, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Jhang, Khanpur and Mandi Bahauddin.

The minimum temperature in Parachinar was -11 degrees C, in Skardu and Kalam -6, in Astore -5 degrees C and in Hunza -3 degrees C.