LAHORE, Jan 8: The maximum temperatures in Lahore and some other cities dipped to a record low on Saturday because of dense fog persisting for the past 10 days or so over the plains of Punjab and adjoining Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh.
A thick layer of mist that remained suspended throughout the day made the wind chillier than it was on Friday. The sun peeped from behind the canopy of fog around 3pm, looking like the yolk of an egg. It soon hid behind the fog without giving even a little bit of warmth to the cold battered Lahore.
The maximum temperatures in the city dropped from Friday’s 10 degrees Celsius to just 8.2 degrees Celsius. The minimum temperature was 2.6 degrees Celsius.
The city’s lowest minimum temperature was -2.2 degrees that was recorded on Jan 22, 2008. The Met department does not have any record of the lowest maximum temperature of the city in the month of January but said that Saturday’s temperature could be the lowest so far.
The little difference between the maximum and the minimum temperatures created nerve-wrecking arctic conditions in the city.
People in Lahore and elsewhere have been left at the mercy of the severe cold weather this season as there is an acute shortage of energy in the country. For majority of them, cozy indoors is a dream because of irregular and short supply of gas and electricity.
Weather was even colder in cities like Bhakkar where the maximum temperature dropped to 7.5 degrees Celsius and the minimum to 3 degrees Celsius.
In Jauharabad the maximum temperature was 8 degrees Celsius and the minimum 4.5 degrees Celsius. In Jhang, the maximum temperature was 8.3 degrees Celsius and the minimum 4 degrees Celsius. Sahiwal’s maximum temperature was 8 degrees Celsius and minimum 3.5 degrees Celsius.
The temperatures of these cities in the plains of Punjab were almost equal to those at Murree, the popular hill station which people throng in winter to enjoy snowfalls. The maximum temperature at Muree was 8.5 degrees Celsius and the minimum 2 degrees Celsius.
The highest maximum temperature in Punjab was recorded in Kamra which was 15 degrees Celsius. But again its minimum temperature was 1 degrees Celsius.
The Met Office said the temperature further dipped because of the persistent fog and a shallow westerly wave which gave light and isolated snowfall over Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, thick fog continued to disrupt rail, road and air traffic in Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad, Jhelum, Khanpur, Mandi Bahauddin, Mangla, Multan, Rawalpindi, Sukkur, Nawabshah and Peshawar.
There were patches of low to moderate fog over the Motorway’s Islamabad-Lahore portion (M-II) where traffic was allowed under the strict eye of police. The Motorway’s Peshawar-Islamabad stretch (M-I) remained closed last night and in the morning because of poor visibility caused by dense fog.
The National Highway also remained fog-bound from Islamabad to Sukkur. Vehicular traffic moved in slow-paced convoys to avoid accidents.
The flight schedule remained disrupted at the Lahore airport because of thick fog in the morning. Flights from Lahore to Peshawar and Doha were cancelled and those to Manchester, Dubai and Kuwait were delayed by several hours.
Operations of all trains, especially from Karachi to down-country destinations, also suffered four to five hours delay as, according to the authorities concerned, they were being moved at a slow pace to avoid any mishap on the fog-bound tracks.
The Met Office forecast cold and dry weather over most parts of the country in the next 24 hours. However, moderate to dense foggy conditions were likely to continue over the plains of Punjab, central and lower Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and upper Sindh. Light rain with snowfall was expected at isolated places of Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir.