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Fresh spell of snow, rain in J&K, traffic movement disrupted on 2 key highways
While the Mughal Road remained closed for traffic, the Srinagar-Leh highway was blocked briefly but was later opened for traffic after the snow was cleared
Snow and rains lashed parts of Jammu and Kashmir bringing down temperatures and closing the Srinagar-Leh highway and Mughal road on Sunday, officials said. The traffic was later restored on the Srinagar-Leh highway.
Officials of the Meteorological Department (MeT) said that a fresh western disturbance hit the region on Saturday evening, bringing rain during the evening.
“Higher reaches received snowfall while there were widespread rains in the plains. Gulmarg also had light snowfall,” said an official of MeT.
There was also snowfall in South Kashmir, closing the Mughal road while traffic on the Srinagar-Leh highway was also temporarily suspended.
The traffic department, in a tweet, said that the Srinagar-Jammu highway was open while traffic was restored on the Srinagar-Gulmarg-Gumri road.
“Traffic plying on Jammu-Srinagar NHW. SSG road through for vehicular movement. However, Mughal road is still closed, “ the department said in a tweet in the afternoon.
An official of the department told HT that the Mughal road was also cleared of snow, but traffic has not been allowed to ply. “It is very slippery, “ a MeT official said.
Mughal road usually remains closed for winter months owing to heavy snowfall in 11,433 feet high Peer Ki Gali.
The MeT department said there was widespread rains in the plains, and they were expecting more rains in the next 12 hours.
It said that till 8:30 am, Srinagar received 26.1mm of rain, Pahalgam 14.3mm, Gulmarg 16.8mm, while Jammu recorded 16.2mm and Banihal 24.8mm of rain.
“Widespread light to moderate rain and snow are expected over Jammu and Kashmir till Monday morning,” a MeT official said.
“Thereafter, we expect a decrease in precipitation,” he said.
The mercury experienced a fall during the night owing to snowfall.
Srinagar recorded a minimum of 5.2 degrees Celsius, as against 5.6 degrees Celcius on the previous night.
The southern tourist resort of Pahalgam recorded 2.1 degrees Celcius against 2.0 degrees Celcius on the previous night while the ski resort of Gulmarg witnessed a minimum of minus 3.6 degrees Celcius against 0.5 degrees Celcius on the previous night.
Jammu and Kashmir is in the middle of three back-to-back approaching wet weather systems since Monday with intermittent rains and snow likely.
Kashmir’s resort towns of Gulmarg and Sonmarg received the season’s first snowfall on October 20.
Harud, autumn in Kashmir, set in the last week of September while Chilai Kalan, Kashmir’s harshest 40-day winter period, starts December 21.
This year, Jammu and Kashmir received the much-needed normal rainfall this time after two years of deficit monsoon seasons, officials said. They said that the Kashmir valley received 270 mm of average rainfall from June 1 to September 29, an increase of 6% d than the normal of 254 mm. Similarly, the Jammu division experienced 886mm average rainfall in the four monsoon months, an increase of 7% from the normal 826 mm.
Kashmir gets 70% of its precipitation through Western Disturbances – moisture-laden winds from the Mediterranean – with normally January and February as snow months and March and April (receiving above 100mm each) as the wettest rain months.
Jammu city also witnessed high-speed winds overnight along with a spell of heavy rains during the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, but there was no report of any damage, officials said. (with inputs from agencies)
