Srinagar-bound traffic on highway today

Srinagar: The inclement weather conditions prevalent over the past two days across Kashmir valley improved on Wednesday, with bright sunshine making a welcome appearance. The weather office has said that the weather will now stay dry till next week.

The Srinagar office of the meteorological (MeT) department had predicted improvement in weather conditions from Wednesday afternoon, while the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted the wet spell to continue till Friday.

On Wednesday, bright sunshine greeted the people of the valley in the forenoon which was later followed by a quite warm day. As per weather officials, there wasn’t any rainfall in any part of the valley on Wednesday except in Kokernag, which received about 0.7 mm of rainfall.

“As predicted by the department, the weather improved across the valley today. There was a significant improvement in weather by afternoon after which the sky cleared. Now onwards, the weather will remain dry till next week, 12th of April”, Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, Deputy Director of the MeT office in Srinagar, told Kashmir Reader.

Due to the rainfall over the past two days, minimum temperatures dipped across Kashmir valley on Wednesday. As per officials, Srinagar city recorded a low of 5.2 degree Celsius, down from 8.8 degree Celsius on the previous night, while Qazigund recorded a low of 5.2 degree Celsius, against 8.0 degree Celsius on the earlier night.

Pahalgam recorded a low of 1.7 degree Celsius, sharply down from 5.9 degree Celsius recorded a night before. Kokernag recorded a low of 3.5 degree Celsius, against 6.8 degree Celsius on the previous night.

However, Gulmarg continued to reel under sub-zero temperatures with a low of minus 2.2 degree Celsius, against 0.8 degree Celsius on the earlier night. Kupwara recorded a low of 4.6 degree Celsius, down from minus 6.4 degree Celsius of the previous night.

Traffic on the Srinagar to Jammu National Highway will ply from Jammu towards Srinagar on Thursday, the traffic department said. Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) shall be allowed from Nagrota (Jammu) between 8 AM and 1 PM and subsequently from Jakheni (Udhampur) between 9 AM and 2 PM towards Srinagar.

For Heavy Motor Vehicles (HMVs), it said, “Such vehicles shall be allowed from Jakheni (Udhampur) towards Srinagar after the tail of down HMVs crosses Jakheni (Udhampur). TCU Udhampur shall liaise with TCU Ramban before releasing the HMVs.”

Reader correspondent