BEIJING - The heavy fog, which crippled traffic, delayed flights and created obstacles in the highways in many places of North China since Saturday, was likely to continue until Tuesday, said meteorological authorities.

The fog shrouded most places in southern Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei province on Sunday. Many other places, including parts of Shandong, Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi and Henan provinces, will also be affected by the foggy weather, according to a report issued by the National Meteorological Center (NMC) at 6 pm on Sunday.

The Beijing Meteorological Bureau issued a yellow-level alert at 5 pm on Sunday, saying that most places in Beijing will be shrouded by heavy fog on Monday, and visibility in the plains will be less than 500 meters.

Melting snow has made the air wet. And the lack of winds led the wetness in the air to intensify, thus causing the fog, said the bureau.

A total of six highways in Beijing including the Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Tianjin, and Beijing-Harbin highways were closed on Sunday due to the fog. Some parts of the Sixth Ring Road in the southern part of Beijing were shut to traffic as well, according to the Beijing traffic management bureau.

Many highways in Hebei province were closed on Sunday too and most cars in the city streets had to turn on the fog lights to avoid rear-end collision. Many places in Hebei province were affected by the foggy weather since Wednesday, according to a report on the website of China Meteorological Administration on Sunday.

The foggy weather has already affected parts of North and East China for days.

Visibility was reduced to less than 200 meters in different parts of Shandong province, and less than 50 meters in a few areas of the province on Saturday, according to the Shandong provincial meteorological center.

More than 40 flights at the Yaoqiang airport in Jinan, capital of Shandong, have been delayed or canceled on Saturday.

The China Basketball Association delayed a match between Guangdong and Foshan basketball teams on Saturday because the players could not reach Guangdong by plane on time due to the fog, according to a report of the Xinhua News Agency.

The foggy weather will end on Tuesday when a strong cold front is expected to arrive in Central and East China. The cold wind will blow the fog away, according to the NMC.