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Several parts of J&K see fresh sporadic snowfall, weather likely to improve
Authorities had halted the traffic for some time on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway due to the snowfall but the road was reopened in the morning
Several parts of Jammu and Kashmir witnessed fresh sporadic snowfall during the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
The state’s weather office said that the ski resort of Gulmarg of Kashmir valley received most of the snow, while there was some precipitation in parts of Jammu as well.
“Jammu mostly received snow in the areas of Kishtwar, Batote, Patni Top and Jawahar Tunnel,” said deputy director of the meteorological department, Srinagar, Mukhtar Ahmad.
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He said the depth of the snow was 13cm in Batote, 6.8cm in Banihal, 2cm in Gulmarg and 1.5cm in Pahalgam.
He said that now the snowfall has stopped, the weather would improve.
“ Now the weather will be fine up to January 4,” he said, referring to the fact that temperatures will stop falling further.
Owing to the cloudy weather, the minimum night temperatures have also stopped dipping in Kashmir.
“It was 0.6 degrees Celsius in Srinagar as the presence of clouds improved the minimum temperature, “ Ahmad said.
People woke up to a sunny morning in Srinagar as there was less chill in the air.
The temperature had dipped in the night to -6.5 degrees Celsius in Gulmarg, -1.3 degrees Celsius in Pahalgam, -1.7 degrees Celsius in Batote and -0.2 degrees Celsius in Banihal.
Authorities had halted the traffic for some time on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway due to the snowfall but the road was reopened in the morning.
“Jammu-Srinagar NHW through after clearance of landslide and snow. Stranded vehicles between Jawahar Tunnel and Nashree Tunnel will clear after that fresh vehicles shall be allowed,” the traffic police said in a tweet.
The 40-day-long intense winter period “chillai kalan” started in Kashmir Valley on December 21 with sub-zero night temperatures across the region.
This year, winter has started on a harsh note as the temperature dropped to a record -6.6 degrees Celsius in summer capital Srinagar on December 19, the lowest temperature of the season and the second coldest December night in the past decade.
