Smog thickens in, around City

LAHORE:Smog thickened in and around the provincial metropolis on Thursday while Met Office predicted similar conditions for the next 24 hours.

Met officials said that a westerly wave was present over upper parts of the country and was likely to affect most parts of the country in the next 24-36 hours. Another cyclonic storm MAHA had developed in south-east Arabian Sea, they said, adding this system was too far away from Pakistan coast, hence, there was no threat at present.

They predicted that mainly dry weather was expected in most parts of the country, while cold in northern areas. However, cloudy weather condition with rain and dust storm was expected in Sindh and Balochistan.

Cloudy weather condition with rain-thunderstorm (light snowfall over high mountains) is also expected at isolated places in upper Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir.

On Thursday, rain/thunderstorm occurred at isolated places in Khuzdar, Nokkundi, Muzzafarabad, Garhidupata, Kalam, Mirkhani, Drosh, Dir, Kakul, Chitral, Pattan, Bagrote and Gupis. Lowest temperature was recorded in Skardu where the mercury dropped to 02°C while in Lahore it was 16°C and highest was 31°C.