Fog hit some areas of Shanghai yesterday morning, causing some traffic disruption.

Chongming County and Jinshan District had the thickest fog, with visibility dropping to between 800 and 1,000 meters, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.

Shanghai Maritime Authority said local water traffic, which was affected early yesterday, resumed to normal after 2pm when the fog dispersed.

The fog had earlier troubled water traffic near the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Shipping was suspended along the northern part of the deep-water channel because of poor visibility for a while yesterday morning, according to maritime officials at Wusong port. Other waters along the mouth of the Yangtze were also covered with mist but they incurred no traffic restrictions, and passenger shipping between downtown and local islands remained unaffected yesterday.

The maritime headquarters issued a flood prevention yellow alert for the first time this year at 4:50pm on Tuesday. The SMB issued yellow rainstorm, thunder and gale alerts at about the same time. The thunderstorm on Tuesday night caused 16 power supply lines to trip in Pudong and parts of the neighborhood had power cuts, said the Shanghai Flood Control Headquarters.

Up to 8am yesterday, medium to heavy rain hit most areas of the city. The Songyin area in Jinshan District had the most rainfall, of 90.6 millimeters. The area around Qizhong Tennis Center in Minhang District had 87.8 millimeters, ranking second. In the downtown area, Xujiahui had 19.3 millimeters of rain.

Due to the rain, maximum temperatures for the rest of the week are not expected to be higher than 30 degrees Celsius, probably ranging between 27 and 29 degrees.

Cloudy skies are expected and rain will return on Monday night, forecasters said.

(Shanghai Daily May 29, 2008)