Several parts of the Valley including summer capital Srinagar received the season’s first snowfall overnight while Kashmir’s higher reaches received another spell of snowfall. People in the Valley woke up to a blanket of snow as the much-awaited snowfall brought them cheer. However, moderate to heavy snowfall in the higher reaches snapped road connectivity to several areas.
The snowfall saw people turning to photography making social media sites abuzz with pictures of the snow. As the bright sunshine greeted the Valley on Saturday morning after overnight snowfall, it took just a few hours for the accumulated snow to melt in most of the places including Srinagar.
As per MeT officials, ski-resort Gulmarg in Baramulla recorded almost 1 feet of fresh snowfall while the plains including Srinagar recorded almost 3-4 inches of snowfall during the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. MeT officials said Tangmarg recorded 8 inches of fresh snowfall.
Pir Ki Gali pass which had received 1 feet of snowfall on November 14, 15 also received a fresh spell of snowfall. The higher reaches of Kupwara including Sadhna Top also received moderate to heavy fresh snowfall affecting the surface transport in the area.
Meanwhile, senior officials said that men and machinery were pressed into service for snow clearance. Officials said there was no damage reported due to Saturday’s snowfall adding that 250 snow clearance machines across the Valley were kept ready for clearing roads and by-lanes.
No forecast of snow till December 20:
The MeT department has said that there was no forecast for any major snowfall till December 20.
In a weather forecast, Director MeT Sonam Lotus said that after the recent snowfall, weather was improving gradually and “no major snowfall activity is expected till December 20.” Lotus said weather will remain cloudy for the next few days but “will witness a significant improvement from Sunday.”
Rainfall, drop in temperatures:
The Valley was also lashed by rains for the last two days. As per MeT data, for the last two days Srinagar recorded 25.4 millimetres rainfall while Gulmarg recorded 22.4 mm rainfall. Qazigund recorded 26.6 mm, Pahalgam 21.7 mm, Kupwara 24 mm, Kokernag 24.7 mm rainfall for the last two days. Winter capital Jammu was also lashed by rains and recorded 27.8 mm rainfall while Banihal recorded 45.2 mm and Batote 44.2 mm rainfall.
Heavy rainfall and snowfall in higher reaches lead to suspension of traffic on the 270-kilometre Srinagar-Jammu National Highway which as per Traffic officials was restored later in the day. The wet spell has also caused a fall in temperatures as Srinagar recorded 8 degrees Celsius on Saturday while Gulmarg recorded 0.6 degrees maximum temperature. After remaining above the freezing point for the last several days, night temperature in Srinagar on Friday night recorded minus 0.6 degrees while Gulmarg was freezing at minus 4 degrees.