LAHORE, Jan 14: Dense fog made the minimum temperature in Lahore plunge to zero degree Celsius on Tuesday, making it the coldest day of the current season.

The minimum temperature also dropped in many other cities of the province due to thick fog, making people crave for clear days. The cold wave gripping the country is now more than 10 days old.

Fog in Lahore cleared at 1pm, allowing the sun to warm up the city, but it again started developing at around 8pm, reducing visibility to a mere 20 metres at the airport in 40 minutes.

The Met office expected further accentuation of severe weather conditions during the next 24 hours.

The minimum temperature in Lahore at night was a seasonal record and it increased to only 6.4 degrees Celsius at noon on Tuesday.

At 6am, the temperature was recorded at only 2.5 degrees Celsius, making it the coldest morning of the season so far. It was 3.8 degrees Celsius at 8am, 4 degrees at 9am and 5.2 at 11am. The maximum of 15.1 degrees Celsius was achieved late in the afternoon, after the sun had shown for some time.

On Monday, the city recorded a maximum of 12.8 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 3.2 degrees.

Earlier, thick fog continued to haunt the city throughout the previous night. It started developing at 11pm, reducing visibility to 20 metres from 1am to 6am. Visibility gradually increased to only 100 meters at 9am.

Air service remained suspended throughout the night and on Tuesday morning because of poor visibility and unfavourable aviation conditions.

Flights can be operated at the airport only when visibility is more than one kilometre. And this happened on Tuesday only after 1pm.

According to the Met office, Faisalabad, Multan, Shorkot, Sargodha, Mianwali, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Jhelum continued to be affected by thick fog which reduced the minimum temperature at night.

The minimum temperature was 1 degree Celsius in Dera Ghazi Khan and Faisalabad, 2 degrees in Khanpur, Bahawalnagar, Sialkot, Mianwali and Sargodha and 3 degrees in Multan.

The Met office predicted a cold weather for Lahore and many other cities in the province, with fog during the night and on Wednesday morning, seeing no hope of any respite for the people at least for the next 36 hours.

It said that weather conditions would start improving after Jan 20.