LAHORE, Jan 9: Unexpected drizzle quietly devoured the thick shield of fog when people were huddled under blankets during the early hours of Wednesday, giving them the much-desired gift of a clear sunshine in the morning.

The sunshine was as much a surprise as were the damp streets. Initially, it looked as if the streets were dewy but it later transpired that the dampness was due to the drizzle.

Drizzle cleaned the atmosphere of fog which had disrupted life for the past over one week. It allowed sun to warm the city a lot, making people shed their heavy woolies after so many days.

The sun brought smiles on the faces of people and the flora and fauna also basked under the sun. It seemed as if they wanted to avail themselves of every bit of the opportunity still fearing fog to blanket the city anytime.

The minimum temperature last (Monday) night was 1 degree Celsius and the maximum went up to 18 degrees Celsius because of the clear day.

Fog in the meantime continued to blanket Faisalabad, Jhelum, Mangla, Peshawar, Sahiwal, Bahawalnagar, Jhang, Multan and Toba Tek Singh.

The Met office broke the news that fog would now start clearing from the plain areas of the country because of the arrival of a fresh westerly wave that lay over eastern parts of Iran and adjoining areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It reported 6mm of rain in Parachinar, 1mm in Gujranwala and Rawlakot and drizzle in Dera Ismail Khan and Faisalabad. It forecast thunderstorm/rain with snowfall over the hills at isolated places of northeast Balochistan, Lower Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Malakand, Hazara divisions, Punjab, Gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir in the next 24 hours.

Mainly cool weather was expected over rest of the country with foggy conditions over upper Sindh.

The minimum temperature in Skardu was -17 degrees C, in Astore -15, in Kalam -10, in Gilgit -8, in Kalat -6, in Quetta -4 and in Chakwal (Punjab) -1.5.