Fresh snowfall ends dry spell in Kashmir, brings cheers to tourists' faces

Srinagar: Kashmir and Ladakh Valley received fresh snowfall after a long dry spell of cold bringing down the temperature further down, while the metrological department has predicted improvement in weather conditions from the 31st afternoon. The fresh snowfall has put an end to the prolonged dry spell of cold in both Vallies that led to the plummeting of minimum temperature in the last over one week. Most of the stations across Kashmir and Ladakh are recording sub-zero temperatures every night, thus intensifying the cold wave in the Valley. Meteorological department officials said that the plains and higher reaches of Kashmir will receive light to moderate snowfall till tomorrow. Data collected by MET Department said that the famous ski-resort Gulmarg, tourist resort Pahalgam & Sonamarg, Gurez, Kupwara, keran and Srinagar and other areas received fresh snowfall.

Around three inches of snow accumulated in Gulmarg while six inches of snowfall has accumulated in higher reaches of north including Gurez, and Sadhna Top. Five inches of snowfall accumulated in Mughal Road, Sinthan Top and Margan Top while Pahalgam received light snowfall and in Sonamarg two inches of snowfall accumulated when the report was last filed.

Plans including Srinagar also received a light snowfall that bought cheer to the faces of common people and tourists who have landed in Kashmir to celebrate the new year in the snow.  MET said there is a possibility of more light snowfall in the plains of Kashmir while upper reaches will witness moderate snowfall till tomorrow.

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He also said that the night temperature would plummet further across Kashmir in the coming days as there is no forecast of any major wet spell till January 07 next year. The snowfall has led to the closure of major roads in Kashmir including the Srinagar-Jammu highway, Srinagar-Leh highway, Bandipora-Gurez road, Mughal road and others.

Jammu-Srinagar highway has been closed due to heavy rainfall at Cafeteria Morh, near Ramban, while higher reaches of the Pirpanjal mountain range received heavy snowfall, resulting in the closure of Mughal road, officials said.

Officials said that due to fresh snowfall, Karnah-Kupwara, Gurez-Bandipora roads and Srinagar-Leh highway have been closed as precautionary measures. Moreover, the Sonamarg-Zojjila road was also closed after fresh snowfall at Zojila in the Ganderbal district.

The district administration Ganderbal has also issued an advisory, asking people to avoid venturing out into landslide-prone areas.

“In view of the weather advisory issued by the Indian Meteorological Department, the general public of Kangan Sub-Division and those living in higher reaches of the district are advised to remain cautious and not to venture out in slopes, hilly areas or flood/landslide prone areas till the weather improves,” the advisory reads.

Other district administrations have put essential services including disaster management on alert to meet any untoward incident, and rescue teams of SDRF, NDRF, CRPF, ARMY and JKP are kept on standby across Kashmir to handle the situations.