What SUPARCO found over Punjab

Pakistan's space agency has put a number on how bad the smog over Punjab has become. In its latest smog bulletin, published on 11 November 2026, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) classed 32 of the province's 36 districts as having high or severe smog. Only four districts escaped that rating, and none was classed as good. Satellite images taken on 10 November show a province almost entirely under a haze of smoke, dust and fog.

The figures come from SUPARCO's Space4Climate portal. Satellites recorded 499 active fires in Punjab in 24 hours, and another 744 fires across the border in the same period. The average aerosol optical depth — a measure of how much sunlight the particles in the air block — was 1.52 across the province, and it was highest over Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan and Hafizabad. Only 5% of Punjab was clear sky. About 62% of the province lay under haze, smog or smoke, and another 28% under fog or low cloud.

Twelve districts were classed as severe: Hafizabad, Jhang, Nankana Sahib, Sheikhupura, Muzaffargarh, Khanewal, Okara, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Mandi Bahauddin, Bahawalnagar and Gujranwala. A further 20 were classed as high, including Lahore, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Kasur and Sialkot. The four districts in the moderate band were Jhelum, Rahim Yar Khan, Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur. Lahore was in the high band, with an aerosol optical depth of 1.6 and a modelled PM2.5 reading of 153 micrograms per cubic metre.

What the Punjab smog numbers mean

The numbers in the bulletin are satellite measurements, not readings from a monitor on a street corner. Aerosol optical depth describes the whole column of air above the ground: 1.52 means the haze is thick enough to cut out a large share of the sunlight. The highest values were in Muzaffargarh, at 2.01, and Dera Ghazi Khan, at 1.93.

The PM2.5 figures are different again. They come from the CAMS model run by Europe's Copernicus programme, and they are estimates, not measurements. The model put the province-wide average at 133 micrograms per cubic metre on 10 November, with the highest district values in Sargodha (187), Hafizabad (186) and Jhang (162). The one pollutant that was lower than usual was nitrogen dioxide: the average over Punjab was 12% below the 2019–2025 average for this time of year, which suggests traffic and industry were not the main drivers of this episode — the smoke was.

Where the smoke is coming from

Two things made this episode: fire and weather. The 499 fires detected in Punjab in a single day are mostly crop-residue burning after the rice harvest, and the 744 fires recorded across the border in the same 24 hours show that the smoke does not stop at a boundary. The fires are the fuel; the weather is the lid. SUPARCO rates the air's ability to clear itself — its ventilation — as very poor throughout the forecast, at between 1,130 and 1,431 square metres per second. When the air barely moves, the smoke from hundreds of fires stays where it is.

This is the pattern of every smog season in the region. As our guide to the season explains, clear winter nights cool the ground, a layer of cold air settles under warmer air above it, and the pollution is trapped near the ground until the sun can break the inversion. Delhi, across the border, has had its own bad-air week — see our Delhi AQI article.

The province has been preparing. Before the season, Punjab's School Education Department told schools to limit outdoor activities, the environment agency inspected 2,710 brick kilns by 13 October, and 67 quick-response units with fire bowsers were placed in 10 hotspot districts to deal with crop burning. Even so, as of the morning of 13 November no school closure or smog emergency order had been recorded on our Smog in Lahore Today page.

What happens next

SUPARCO's forecast has the province-wide PM2.5 falling from 133 micrograms per cubic metre on 10 November to 106 on 11 November, 86 on 12 November and 56 on 13 November, and SUPARCO says conditions are likely to improve over the next three days. But ventilation stays rated very poor on each of those days, so the improvement is gradual rather than a clearing.

Wind or rain would clear it faster; neither is in the forecast. The daily bulletins are the best guide to which districts are worst on a given day, and the live readings from the Punjab EPA are the best guide to the air in a particular place at a particular hour.

How to protect yourself on a bad smog day

On a day when the air looks thick, the advice is simple and it is worth following even if you feel fine. Keep windows shut in the early morning and at night, when the smog is thickest, and air the house briefly in the afternoon if the readings have dropped. A well-fitted N95 mask helps outdoors; a cloth mask or a loose surgical mask does very little against fine particles. Do not add smoke of your own: burning leaves or rubbish at home, or an open fire in a closed room, makes the air inside worse.

Exercise is best moved to the early afternoon, or indoors, on the worst days. The air is usually at its worst at night and in the early morning, when the inversion that traps the pollution is strongest. Children, older people, pregnant women and anyone with asthma or heart disease should take the warnings most seriously, and should get medical help promptly for chest pain or breathlessness that does not settle with rest. Our emergency numbers page and emergency kit checklist are worth having ready.

Driving needs care too. Fog and smog together can cut visibility to a few metres within a short distance, and motorways in Pakistan are closed in dense fog. Slow down to a speed at which you can stop within the distance you can see, use low beams rather than high beams, and never stop in a lane. See our driving in fog guide.

What our records show, and what they miss

Our records show the satellite picture of this episode: the 32 districts in high or severe smog, the 499 fires in Punjab and 744 across the border, the aerosol depth of 1.52, and the forecast improvement over three days. That picture comes from SUPARCO's bulletin of 11 November, and it is the part of the story that can be checked. What the records miss, for now, is the air at street level. The bulletin does not publish ground-level readings for each district, and it does not say how many people fell ill or how many road accidents the low visibility caused. When the next bulletin appears, this article will need updating. You can follow today's incidents as new official information is published, and our methodology page explains how we verify them.

The short version

  • SUPARCO's satellite bulletin for 10 November classed 32 of Punjab's 36 districts as having high or severe smog; only 5% of the province was clear.
  • Satellites recorded 499 fires in Punjab and 744 across the border in 24 hours; the average aerosol optical depth was 1.52.
  • The worst districts were Hafizabad, Jhang, Nankana Sahib, Sheikhupura and Muzaffargarh; Lahore was in the high band.
  • The forecast has the air improving over three days, but ventilation stays very poor, so the haze will lift slowly.
  • Keep windows shut at night and in the early morning, wear a fitted N95 outdoors, and drive slowly on low beams in fog.