LAHORE – Incessant fog continued to disrupt normal routine life in the plains of the country including the city on Saturday as low visibility disturbed air and rail traffic besides hampering vehicular movement on inter and intra city routes.
Experts have forecasted the harsh weather conditions to persist during the next 2-3 days.
Dense fog blanketed the plains including the city throughout the day, bringing life to a standstill. In Lahore, fog started falling in the wee hours and continued till noon. Before the lifting of existing mass, the fog started falling again, depriving Lahorites from warmth of sunshine throughout the day. Fog gained in so densely at midnight that the visibility reduced to zero in open areas. Incessant fog caused delay in arrival and departure of international and domestic flights during the morning while low visibility also disturbed rail traffic and almost all trains reached to their respective destinations hours behind the scheduled time. Dense fog forced closures of Motorway from Lahore to Islamabad and from Pindi Bhattian to Faisalabad, causing difficulties for the motorists who left with no other option except to use alternative routes including National Highway.
 Local meteorological department has forecast mainly cold and dry weather for most parts of the country with fog in the morning and at night for the plains including the City during the next 2-3 days. However, light rain and snowfall over the hills is expected at isolated places of Kashmir.
Skardu remained the coldest place in the country where mercury dropped 12.5 degree Celsius below the freezing point. In Lahore, maximum and minimum temperature was recorded 9.3 C and 1.5 C respectively. Relative humidity in the morning was recorded 91 per cent which decreased to 86 per cent in the evening. Severe cold forced the Lahorites to stay indoors to avoid harsh weather conditions. Considerable increase in the usage of heaters led to low gas pressure throughout the city.
According to the experts, a trough of westerly wave lies over Kashmir.