Fresh snowfall in parts of Valley
SRINAGAR: Fresh snowfall in Kashmir on Saturday brought back cold wave-like conditions in the valley where the day temperature for the past week was several degrees higher than normal for this time of the year, officials said.
Snowfall was reported from most parts of Kashmir, including Srinagar, the summer capital of J&K, the officials said.
Macchil and Z-Gali areas in remote Kupwara district recorded snow between one foot to 18 inches, while places like Gulmarg, Baramulla and Sonamarg recorded up to seven inches of snow, they said.
Lanslides in Banihal
The traffic on Jammu-Srinagar national highway was suspended after the fresh landslides in Banihal and Ramban.
Meteorological department director Sonam Lotus said weather is likely to remain erratic with light to moderate rain and snow at isolated places in J&K during next 24 hours, with expected improvement after Sunday evening.
“There’s no forecast of any heavy spell but light to moderate rains is likely in the plains with snowfall in upper reaches of J&K,” he said. Srinagar recorded 1.5°C temperature during the night while tourist resorts of Pahalgam and Gulmarg saw minus 3.5°C and minus 5.8°C respectively.
Srinagar has been witnessing rainfall since Friday night, followed by sleet and brief snowfall on Saturday. The precipitation has brought down the day temperature by several degrees. While the maximum temperature on Friday was 15 degrees Celsius, the minimum temperature was 3.8 degrees Celsius.
The maximum temperature over the past week has been six to seven degrees above normal for this time of the year.