Road, air traffic hit as heavy city fog reduces visibility
SHANGHAI was hit by heavy fog yesterday morning with visibility less than 50 meters in some areas, and conditions are forecast to remain so over the next two days.
The city’s weather authorities have warned that from this afternoon to tomorrow morning, heavy fog as well as slight PM 2.5 pollution will hit the city due to increasing wet air humidity and weak wind power.
Along with the fog, short-term drizzle is also predicted tomorrow.
Temperatures ranged between 2.4 and 11.6 degrees Celsius yesterday and are predicted to rise a little to between 5 and 15 degrees today.
The low visibility had a major impact on the roads.
There was a collision involving a number of vehicles near the Hunan
Road exit of the S3 Hufeng Highway in the Pudong New Area at around 7:30am yesterday.
After the incident, some vehicles crossed on the highway, some trucks overturned, and some small cars and vans collided. A large amount of debris was scattered about, with people were trapped inside vehicles, Xinmin Evening News reported.
Police said no one was injured while urging drivers to slow down during foggy weather, keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front, and turn on their taillights.
The fog also caused dozens of scheduled flights out of Shanghai Pudong International Airport to be delayed or diverted over the last three hours, according to FlightView.com’s flight tracking app.
The fog is forecast to dissipate a little on Sunday and Monday when a weak cold spell will arrive with wind power increasing. Another weak cold front is also forecast next mid-week.
However, the fog and haze won’t be completely alleviated next week as the cold fronts are not strong enough.
Temperatures will fluctuate between 2 and 8 degrees on Sunday and Monday, city forecasters said.
Dense fog also affected Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces with visibility below 200 meters while some parts of southern Jiangsu and southern Anhui had visibility below 50 meters, China’s National Meteorological Center said.
The Central Meteorological Observatory issued yellow and orange warnings for heavy fog up to 7:45am. Haze is expected in many areas going into today. Some areas of Anhui issued red warnings for heavy fog — the most serious advisory — and many highways were temporarily closed, according to CCTV news.
(Shanghai Daily/Reuters)