Weather to remain cold, partly cloudy

LAHORE: Cold and partly cloudy weather was recorded in the City here on Wednesday while Met office predicted similar weather conditions for the next 24 hours.

Met officials said a frontal weather system was likely to enter western parts of the country and may persist in upper parts till 6th January. They predicted that rain/snow was expected in north/western Balochistan, upper Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and adjoining hilly areas. Moderate to isolated heavy rain/snow was expected in upper Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during evening/night. Moderate to dense fog was likely to persist in most plain areas of Punjab and upper Sindh. Cold and partly cloudy weather was expected in other parts of the country.

Wednesday’s minimum temperature was recorded at Skardu and Gupis where mercury dropped to -09°C while in Lahore it was 6.6°C and maximum was 14°C.

Meanwhile, the average AQI of the City was recorded as 214 while the maximum crossed 400. Data collected from IQAir revealed that PM2.5 concentration was 27.8 times the WHO annual PM2.5 guideline value. They said the most polluted areas of the cities included US Consulate (493), Phase8-DHA (383), Pine Avenue (322), Near Ada Plot, Raiwind Road (304), University of Management and Technology (304), Bedian Road (290), Polo Ground Cantt (284), Askari 10 (266) and Ghazi Road Interchange (242).