Overnight snowfall across Kashmir

Overnight snowfall across Kashmir

Flights delayed, highway affected; dry weather forecast till Monday

Srinagar: Kashmir valley received light snowfall again on Thursday, which again affected the operation of flights at Srinagar Airport as well as vehicular movement on the Srinagar-Jammu highway.
The light spell of snowfall over the past two days across Kashmir valley has brought respite from the intense cold conditions with the minimum temperatures in Srinagar city settling above freezing point after more than a month on Thursday.
As per weather officials, Srinagar city witnessed a significant increase in minimum temperatures during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, remaining above the freezing point at 0.4 degree Celsius, up from minus 0.4 degree Celsius on the previous night.
It was on 29th December that the temperatures in Srinagar city had last remained above zero degree Celsius.
Weather officials said that from Wednesday evening till Thursday morning, Srinagar city received fresh snowfall of 1.2 cm (0.4 inch). Qazigund received major snowfall of about 13.2 cm (5 inches).
Pahalgam recorded 1.6 cm (0.6 inch) of snowfall with Kokernag receiving about 6 cm (2.3 inch) of fresh snowfall.
Famous ski-resort Gulmarg received about 1.2 cm (0.4 inch) of fresh snowfall while as Kupwara in north Kashmir received about 1.5 cm (0.5 inch) of fresh snowfall from Wednesday evening till Thursday morning.
Many flights were affected at the Srinagar Aiport on Thursday. Officials said that three flights were cancelled while the mornings flights had to face delay owing to the fresh spell of snowfall along with visibility issues.
“Three flights were cancelled at the airport scheduled for the morning. Out of the 31 flights, 28 flights were able to operate. Largely, the morning flights remained affected at the Airport due to the fresh spell of snowfall making it impossible for the flights to operate till afternoon. However, in the afternoon, all the flights resumed normally”, Santosh Dhoke, Director Srinagar Airport, told Kashmir Reader.
Traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway remained disrupted from Thursday morning till forenoon due to the fresh spell of snowfall which made the roads slippery. The officials said that the traffic was disrupted firstly in the morning due to the snowfall, and later in the afternoon due to the occurence of shooting stones.
“The traffic on the highway was disrupted in the morning till forenoon after the snowfall was received in the Jawahar Tunnel range. After that, the traffic resumed normally till afternoon. However, in the afternoon from 2PM to 3PM, the traffic was disrupted near Samroli due to the shooting stones for an hour”, Jatindar Singh Johar, SSP Traffic Ramban, told Kashmir Reader.
The minimum temperatures, like in Srinagar, rose in other parts of Kashmir valley on Thursday. Qazigund, as per officials, recorded minus 0.8 degree Celsius, up from minus 2.8 degree Celsius on the previous night.
The mercury in the ski-resort Gulmarg settled at a low of minus 6.4 degree Celsius, down from minus 5.2 degree Celsius on the earlier night l, making it the coldest place across Kashmir valley. Kupwara in North Kashmir recorded minus 0.6 degree Celsius, against minus 1.2 degree Celsius a night before.
Pahalgam recorded minus 3.3 degree Celsius against minus 3.9 degree Celsius a night before. Kokernag recorded minus 5.1 degree Celsius against minus 4.5 degree Celsius on the previous night.
The weather office has predicted the weather to remain mainly dry till next weekend, up to 8th of February.
Meanwhile, as per the earlier modified advisory, there will no traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu National highway on Friday. The traffic department said that there will be no vehicular movement from either side of the highway, owing to the maintenance and repairing of the road.

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