LAHORE: Fog blanketed parts of Lahore and some other cities in Punjab after two sunny days on Saturday, once again disrupting rail, road and air traffic.

Temperatures did not sharply dip because of considerable improvement during the previous clear days. There was however a reintroduction of chill in the air.

It was clear around 11pm last (Friday) night but dense fog suddenly started covering the city.

Roads turned darl( as fog made lampposts meaningless due to poor visibility.

The worst hit was the airport, areas around it and the villages bordering India. Soon fog blanketed the entire city, making driving difficult even in the downtown.

Flight operation at the airport was suspended in view of the poor visibility. Speed of trains too was slowed down for safety and vehicles travelled at a slow speed and inlines on the Motorway and the National Highway.

The Met office reported dense fog in Jhelum, Multan, MandiBahauddin, Okara, Sahiwal, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Bahawalnagar, Kasur and Sheikhupura. It said Motorwayfrom Lahore to Pindi Bhattian and to the Salt Range was fog bound. Motorway authorities disallowed heavy traffic from Lahoreto Pindi Bhattian.

In Lahore dense fog persisted till 1pm and lessened afterwards. The maximum temperature dropped from Friday`s 23 degrees Celsius to 17.2 degrees C whereas the minimum last (Friday) night was 6.3 degrees C.

The Met office expected that the intensity and duration of fog would increase in Punjab in the next few days. It forecast mainly very cold and dry weather in Lahore in the next 24 hours with frost after midnight and shallow to dense fog during the night and in the morning.

Very cold and mainly dry weather with shallow to dense fog was expected over the plains of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and upper Sindh. Isolated to scattered frost would occur over Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan af ter midnight.

Isolated thunderstorm with light snowfall over the hills could occur over Malakand, Hazara divisions, Gilgit-Baltistan and adjoining areas of Kashmir.