LAHORE: High latitude westerly winds have delayed foggy weather for two weeks throughout the Punjab. However, mist would continue during the wee hours causing no hindrance to traffic flow on highways and motorways.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) sources said chances of thick fog have been delayed until 10th of December. Accordingly, no rains are likely to take place in Punjab, including Islamabad. Dryness would continue amidst occasional strong winds throughout this period that would not let the pollution concentrate in the environment.
Dust-raising winds are likely to reign in Punjab by the end of November up to the middle of December. They said dust will be the dominating feature due to the wheat sowing activities in major parts of the province and the upcoming frequent spells of westerly winds are likely to impact their density further.
One positive impact of the prevailing circumstances would be zero growth of dengue mosquito due to drop of minimum temperature below 10 degree Celsius. It would reduce the number of fresh infections.
According to the sources, repeated occurrences of westerly winds at low latitudes would extend cold spell in the recent past. It was earlier expected that such a low lying trend of westerly winds would keep dryness as well as pollution under control to save the population from seasonal diseases in the country.
However, the latest trend of westerly winds has also challenged the PMD predictions related to start of cold weather from 10th of December onwards. Thick fog is also likely to be delayed now, which was expected to prevail by the middle of December to continue until the second week of January.
Strong westerly winds had pushed smog back to India in the recent past, improving the air quality index by half after touching 400 earlier due to entry of thick smog as a result of wind direction to Pakistan. The act of stubble burning was being carried out in India, which moved into Pakistan due to wind direction. This situation had alarmed the district administration to expedite precautionary measures across the cities in the central Punjab.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022