Rain pushes mercury down in Punjab amid thick fog

LAHORE: Several Punjab areas including Lahore are fog-blanketed; while the downpour has spurred the cold further, Geo News reported Sunday. The severe fog caused the flights in and out of Lahore to be lying suspended despite the lapse of 15 hours. However, Motorway has been re-opened for the traffic after ten hours of closure owing to extreme fog. The Motorway spokesman, urging against the travel except in dire need, directed to run vehicles slowly with appropriate gap maintained with other vehicles. The fog landed in Lahore since yesterday evening and it kept on assuming intensity in degrees in open and plain areas, badly paralyzing the life. Especially the motorists faced great problems owing to the low visibility. Most areas of Punjab including Lahore received light rain in the morning which pushed the mercury further down. During the next 24 hours, isolated rain with snowfall is expected over Balochistan, sub-mountain areas of North Punjab, upper NWFP and Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir. Mist/fog is likely to occur over plain areas of Punjab. The Met Office also forecast below normal winter rains during the month of January and February in most parts of the country. Due to abnormal dry weather conditions, Rabi crops, especially in rain-fed areas, would remain under severe moisture stress, and water scarcity in urban areas may aggravate. A spokesman for the Met Office said a high pressure area due to El-Nino weather pattern is prevailing over Pakistan since November 2009, and is blocking winter rains. The current El-Nino conditions that started in June 2009 and suppressed monsoon rains in Pakistan are still continuing and are expected to last until 2010 spring. Under these regional and global meteorological parameters, significantly below normal winter rains, ranging from 20 to 30 per cent, are expected in Pakistan from January to February.