Srinagar: Nature continued to defy science in the valley of Kashmir where people again woke up to the sight of snowfall on Sunday, for the second consecutive day of the spell of “dry weather” forecast by the J&K Meteorological (MeT) department.
After the heavy snowfall across Kashmir this week, the local meteorological office had predicted dry weather till January 17. It turned out to be the opposite as Kashmir valley received snowfall both on Saturday and Sunday.
The “dry spell” forecast had come as a respite to people struggling with the consequences of the heavy snowfall, which claimed three lives and left many houses and property damaged in many parts of the valley. The south Kashmir region was the most affected, with three to five feet of snowfall recorded over five days.
By Sunday evening, Srinagar had received about one inch of fresh snowfall in the past 24 hours. Qazigund in south Kashmir had received about 0.5 inches of fresh snowfall during the same period, weather officials informed. The snowfall, as per the officials, has remained largely restricted to a few parts of central and south Kashmir.
The light snowfall, which has been occurring overnight or in the early morning hours, has disrupted the movement of vehicles and turned the roads slippery with a layer of frost. Traffic jams in Srinagar city have been a common sight.
As the prediction of the MeT department went wrong, several people took to social media to criticise the department over its “inefficiency”. Jokes were made and memes shared to mock the MeT department.
Sonam Lotus, Director of the Meteorological Department, J&K, told Kashmir Reader that the forecast can go wrong at times.
“But, largely, our prediction turns out to be true. We have been attaining about 80%-90% of accuracy in our weather prediction since long, but exceptions lie there. The department has been trying hard to give exact weather information to the people of J&K and Ladakh,” Lotus said.
In Kashmir valley, he said, the weather remains dynamic and tends to change over short intervals, throwing several challenges at the department to come up with an accurate prediction. “We’re currently making observations on satellites. If there would have been a dedicated weather model for J&K, the chances of predictions turning wrong could be minimised,” Lotus said.
Meanwhile at the Srinagar Airport, flight operations resumed normally on Sunday. The officials said that all the scheduled flights were able to operate on Sunday, though the early morning flights were delayed up to noon due to poor visibility.
“All the 27 scheduled flights operated today at the airport. However, there was some delay in the early morning flights which later operated in the noon. This happened due to poor visibility issues at the airport,” Santosh Dhoke, Director Srinagar Airport, told Kashmir Reader.
The traffic on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway resumed on Sunday after a week, with vehicles allowed to proceed from Jammu towards Srinagar. However, there were massive traffic jams due to the huge number of vehicles making their ways to Kashmir valley after a long period.
As per the MeT data, Srinagar city recorded a minimum temperature of minus 2.6 degree Celsius and maximum of 4.0 degree Celsius, while Qazigund recorded a minimum temperature of minus 0.4 degree Celsius and maximum temperature of 4.1 degree Celsius on Sunday.
The mercury at Gulmarg reached a low of minus 7.8 degree Celsius and a high of 1.5 degree Celsius on Sunday. Pahalgam recorded a minimum of minus 5.9 degree Celsius and a maximum of 4.1 degree Celsius. Kupwara in north Kashmir recorded a maximum of 4.6 degree Celsius and minus 1.5 degree Celsius minimum temperature.

KALEEM GEELANI