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Two rescued from avalanche in J&K’s Gurez
J&K Police said an avalanche had hit Manzgund Tulail area of Gurez, trapping the woman, Shahnaza Begum, and the girl, Tabasum Bano
A woman and a girl had a close shave after they came under a snow avalanche in Gurez area of Bandipora district on Friday, a day after Kashmir’s higher reaches received fresh snowfall.
J&K Police said an avalanche had hit Manzgund Tulail area of Gurez, trapping the woman, Shahnaza Begum, and the girl, Tabasum Bano. “They were rescued by locals,” said a police official of Bandipora, adding that the duo were on way to fetch drinking water.
Kashmir has witnessed a number of avalanches in its higher reaches, of which two had turned fatal -- one in Gulmarg and another in Ganderbal.
Weather improves in Kashmir
Light rainfall was on Friday reported in parts of Jammu and Kashmir, including Banihal, Qaizugund, Batote, Bhaderwah, Kokernag and Srinagar, with the meteorological department saying that the overall weather has improved.
The Jammu-Srinagar national highway was closed for the consecutive second day due to shooting stones at Panthyal.
The MeT update stated that there was a major spell of snow in north Kashmir which started on Thursday and continued till Friday morning.
“Gulmarg recorded 33 cm (13inch) snowfall, Kupwara 32 cm (12.6inch) and Pahalgam 7.4 cm (3inch) during this period,” the official said.
Yellow snow reported in North Kashmir
The MeT clarified that the ‘yellowish’ snow seen in northern Kashmir on Thursday was a result of dust carried by winds from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“Analysis of second generation weather satellite, Meteosat 9, confirms that yesterday’s yellowish/dusty snowfall over some parts of North Kashmir was dust carried by winds from central parts of Pakistan and southern Afghanistan, which started around 7pm and travelled northeast to reach North Kashmir around 2am,” said MeT’s deputy director Mukhtar Ahmad.
The weather office has predicted scattered rains and snow at isolated places on Saturday followed by dry weather.
Srinagar had recorded 0.7 degrees Celsius minimum temperature on Thursday night, whereas Pahalgam in Anantnag witnessed -0.3°C, while it was -4°C in Gulmarg.
North Kashmir’s frontier district of Kupwara near the Line of Control witnessed -0.5°C while it was 0.6°C in south Kashmir’s Kokernag and -1°C in Pampore’s Konibal.
