Heavy fog in the city delayed many domestic flights yesterday morning, but had little impact on overseas flights to and from Shanghai.

Visibility fell below 100 meters at the Hongqiao International Airport yesterday morning when a dense fog settled in.

The airport suspended all take-offs and landing between 6:30am and 10am yesterday due to the fog.

Planes began to take off from the airport, which now mainly handles domestic flights, at 10am. Around 30 flights were delayed by the fog, but the airport said it had resumed its normal schedule by the late afternoon.

Officials on duty at the airport said some100 passengers were delayed at the airport yesterday.

The fog didn't delay many planes flying into or out of Pudong International Airport, which handles most of the city's overseas flights, although one in-bound flight out of Thailand was forced to land in Fuzhou, Fujian Province.

Traffic was also suspended on five highways in the city for about five to six hours yesterday morning. They were re-opened at 10am.

City officials said the closures didn't cause too many problems as fewer cars than normal were on the roads due to the New Year's holiday.

Meteorologists say temperatures will drop to 1 degree Celsius over the weekend and the cool weather will continue into next week.

Today's high is expected to be 10 degrees Celsius, while the low could be 2 degrees, according to local meteorologists.

(Shanghai Daily January 2, 2004)