Cold, dry forecast

LAHORE:Air Quality Index (AQI) of the provincial capital remained unhealthy on Monday while Met office predicted cold and dry weather with chances of cloudy weather.

Data collected from IQAir revealed that City’s average AQI was 172, which came in the category of ‘Unhealthy’ while the PM2.5 concentrations in Lahore was 17 times the WHO annual air quality guideline value. The most polluted places included Pine Avenue (214), Bedian Road (192), Hiking & Mountaineering Club GCU (186), Polo Ground Cantt (185), University of Management and Technology (183) and US Consulate (176). Met officials said a westerly wave was present over western and upper parts of the country. They predicted that cold and dry weather was expected in most parts of the country. However, rain-wind-thunderstorm (with snowfall over hills) was likely at isolated places in Upper KP, Kashmir and GB. Shallow fog was likely at few plain areas of Punjab and upper Sindh during morning/night hours. Monday’s minimum temperature was recorded at Leh where mercury dropped to -08°C while in Lahore it was 10.6°C and maximum was 26.5°C.