The higher reaches of the Valley on Friday received a fresh spell of light snowfall while plains received rains.
The MeT Department has predicted widespread rains, snowfall in the Valley and Ladakh on Monday and Tuesday.
MeT officials said weather will remain cloudy on Saturday with “isolated rainfall likely in higher reaches”.
Director MeT, Sonam Lotus, told the Greater Kashmir that the plains are likely to receive a light spell of
snowfall and rains while the higher reaches of the Valley and Ladakh are expected to receive light to moderate snowfall between Monday and Tuesday.
“We expect a feeble Western Disturbance to affect Jammu and Kashmir on December 7 as a result of which we are expecting light rain, snowfall in plains of Kashmir and light to moderate snowfall in the higher reaches of the Valley and Ladakh till December 8,” Lotus said.
The night temperatures in the Valley continued to drop below the freezing point on Thursday. Summer capital Srinagar recorded minus 1.2 degrees Celsius while ski-resort Gulmarg recorded minus 2.2 degrees on Thursday night.
Administration formulates action plan:
The Divisional Administration on Friday said that it has formulated a “snow clearance action plan” in view of the MeT prediction for snowfall from Monday. A senior official said “men and machinery had been kept ready to meet any sort of challenges owing to inclement weather”. “Several departments including the Mechanical Engineering department, Roads and Buildings department, Border Roads Organisation and various civic bodies were geared up for snow clearance on a total 6817 kilometre road length in the Valley,” the official said. The official said more than 250 snow clearance machines were available while BRO had also formulated an action plan for snow clearance on 423 km road length coming under its ambit including 34 kilometres between the Jawahar Tunnel and Qazigund. The official said 600 villages across 9 districts of the Valley had been identified by the administration where “usually restoration of power supply after a heavy snowfall takes more than 48 hours”. He said buffer stock of transformers were being kept ready in case of any major faults in these villages. “Provisions were put in place so that incase of a heavy snowfall in days to come, we can restore power supply in these villages within 48 hours,” the official said.