Heavy snowfall has been reported from the Kargil, Drass and Gulmarg areas in higher reaches of the Kashmir Valley, an official said here on Friday.
"Till today morning, around 70 cm of snowfall has been recorded in areas around the Line of Control (LOC) -- 86 cm in Kanzalwan (Gurez), 20 cm in Drass town, 21 cm in Gulmarg and six cm in Kargil town," Sonam Lotus, director of the weather office here, said.
"Recent reports said that snowfall was still on in Kargil, Gulmarg and Drass towns," he added. Lotus said that more precipitation - rain or snow - was expected in the region till Saturday afternoon.
"Weather will improve from Saturday afternoon. We will have a gradual increase in day temperatures and slight fall in night temperatures from tomorrow onwards," the official added.
The minimum temperature in Srinagar was 1.2 degrees Celsius Friday, while it was a fraction below the freezing point at -0.2 degree in Pahalgam, a good minus 4.4 in Gulmarg, minus 9.6 in Kargil and -8.6 in Leh town.
At the Gulmarg ski resort in north Kashmir, all hotels were booked to the capacity for the New Year's celebrations. "Today's snowfall will definitely add to the New Year festivities. A white blanket of thick snow has transformed Gulmarg into a picture postcard town," a hotelier at Gulmarg said.