Fog forecast to continue over next two days

Fog will continue to affect the city over the next one to two days, Wu Rui, an official with the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau, said on Thursday.

The bureau issued a yellow fog alert at 2:10pm following a first alert at 2:30am. 

Yellow is the third-highest level in the four-color system. It indicates that visibility in local coastal areas will be less than 500 meters in the next 12 hours. Between Thursday night and Friday morning, large parts of the city will suffer visibility less than this and it in some areas is likely to decline to 200 meters.

Wu said the low pressure, warm and wet air blown from the sea, gentle breeze and high humidity make the fog form and difficult to disperse. Fog is common in the spring in the city but rarely lasts for a long time.

The air will be slightly polluted on Friday night and Saturday due to the main pollutant PM2.5. It will return to good on Sunday, Qingming Festival, the Shanghai Ecology and Environment Bureau said on Thursday.

With a weak cold front affecting the city during the three-day holiday starting on Saturday, temperatures are expected to fall slightly, the weather bureau said.

Highs will fall from 20 degrees Celsius on Friday and Saturday to 16 and 17 degrees on Sunday and Monday, with lows decreasing from 16 to 13 and 11.

Light rain or showers are forecast over the next five days, except on Sunday, the day of the festival.