19:31
Unknown
Islamabad
The winter, normally a season of feast, excursion and joy in this region of the world, otherwise known for its enervating summers, has brought with it a strange phenomenon in recent weeks — record chill in the air sent people scampering to keep themselves warm and also made movement of vehicular traffic a dicey task, especially at night.
The strange thing about this phenomenon in recent season has been that it gripped the Potohar region and plains of KP as well, in contrast to the trend of past few decades when nearly-blinding fog mostly affected the plain areas of the Punjab.
This time around the 50-year cold records in the Punjab plains region were broken while also plunging the wide swathes of Potohar and KPK in an unprecedented cold spell which spread over a fortnight or even three weeks with weather pundits saying that maximum temperatures fell by as much as 10 degrees Celsius.
After shivering even in the day-time during the previous two days in the aftermath of fog-induced cold., the Tuesday night brought with it some cheer to the winter-weary people as a cloudy sky prevented fog to accumulate, also bringing visibility level back to normal for the vehicular traffic and keeping the temperatures from dipping to sub-zero level as was seen in the previous two weeks.
The met office said that unprecedented foggy conditions in Rawalpindi-Islamabad would reduce to a “shallow fog” in the next couple of days while rains forecasted to begin on Saturday may help clearing away the remaining traces of this fiendish weather.
Normally the phenomenon of fog continues in the plains of Punjab and KP for almost the whole of January, however, there are chances that intensity of fog will be reduced in these areas, especially after the expected rains in different parts of central Punjab in the coming days. “it will neither too shallow nor too dense after rains,” said Farooq Dar, a meteorologist with Pakistan Met Department.
With fluctuations in gas supply for domestic use, the priority for people in the wake of plunging temperatures was to keep themselves warm through usual activities associated with winter like devouring lots of good, vitamin-rich food and taking to outdoor picnics and get-togethers also continued at the same time.
Flight schedules of airlines were hit as according to experts the range and height of fog rose from the usual about 2,000 feet to 4,000 feet or even above.
The weather experts believed that change in climate patterns was behind the extraordinary foggy conditions in Potohar region and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) areas.
“This phenomenon is due to the inflow of cold air from Europe through Iran and Afghanistan, lack of rain and moisture in the air,” added Meteorologist Farooq Dar.
He said chilly winds coming from Siberia were also contributing to a great extent to the extraordinary foggy conditions...
He said the foggy conditions in Potohar were due to dual movement of the winds. The soft winds from east were gradually pushing the dense fog from the plains of Punjab to Potohar and KP.
Dar said the fog had brought down the maximum temperatures of the twin cities by an average of 10 degrees Celsius as compared to that in normal days of winter season.
After an unabated spell of dense early morning or even noon-time fog blanketing the horizon as witnessed during the past three to four days, people heaved a sigh of relief when sun finally came out on Wednesday morning, breaking the shackles of icy weather, and gave people much-awaited opportunity to warm themselves in glorious sunshine.
The restoration of normal conditions was a pleasant change from the weather of past few weeks when dense fog took a sway over the landscape from just an hour or so after the sunset, reducing the visibility level to as low as 15 meters and causing great difficulties to the motorists.
“I leave office mostly around 07:00 pm and travel to Airport Colony which is at a drive of about 35 minutes from my office at Blue Area. Due to dense fog, it became really hard to drive the car as visibility level dropped quite low, extending my travel back home to nearly an hour,” said Qaisar Shehzad, an employee at a private firm.
Situation for office and school-goers was no different in the morning as fog made travelling by motor a tricky chore.
“Vehicles travelled at a snail’s pace due to dense fog in the morning and we often turned up late for our classes,” said many school-kids.
The chances of accidents also increased as the motorists had to adopt extra precautionary measures to drive safely in those foggy conditions.
“Drivers should use fog lights besides travelling at a minimum speed to avoid accidents in these conditions,” said Saeed Ahmad, an official of traffic police.
The unusually inclement weather also posed some health implications as the doctors warned that if proper precautions were not taken, there were chances of contracting flu, fever, cough or sore throat.
“People should wear more and more warm dresses and cover themselves properly in these conditions,” said Dr. Qurat-ul-Ain Ali.
She suggested that boiled egg with milk could be an excellent food supplement in winter season.
Posted in: Islamabad
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