Details

Written by: VMS News Network

Category: ENVIRONMENT

Published: 04 January 2019

SRINAGAR: Valley including Srinagar, the summer capital of the State experienced a fresh snowfall in this afternoon, breaking the two-month-long dry spell in Srinagar. The snowfall started in the afternoon in both plains as well as hilly areas of Kashmir valley. Earlier, the rest of the places except Srinagar had received a fresh snowfall on Jan 02, a day after the MeT informed that two western disturbances are affecting Jammu & Kashmir from Jan 01-02 and Jan 04-06.

Snowfall started immediately after 2pm when the people were coming out of the Masjids after offering congregational Friday prayers. Within half an hour, almost the surface was covered by a white blanket of snow and commuters were finding it difficult to move around in different parts of Srinagar city. the weather would remain wet till Jan 06 (Sunday) afternoon and the higher reaches including Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Pahalgam and others would receive fresh snowfall in between 04 Jan to 06 Jan afternoon, MeT official told Valley Media Service.

Traffic over the Srinagar Jammu Highway was suspended after massive snowfall at Jawahar tunnel and other areas along the stretch.  The traffic was suspended due to bad weather conditions and slippery conditions of the road, Traffic police official said. “Any person wishing to travel on the road should first consult the traffic police and should not take on journey without official clearance,” the official added.

Air traffic from Srinagar Airport also cancelled due to poor visibility on Friday afternoon. “The air traffic remained suspended in the afternoon because of poor visibility due to dense fog, but flight operations took place in the morning,” an airport official said. The officials said that the air traffic will be resumed on January 5, on Saturday, owing to better weather conditions and better visibility.

MeT officials said that Srinagar recorded 3.7 degree Celsius , Qazigund ecorded maximum of 3.8 degrees Celsius and low of minus 0.8 degrees Celsius, Kokernag registered minus 1.0 and maximum of 3.2 degrees Celsius, Pahalgam had minus 6.8 degrees Celsius and  maximum of 0.5 degrees Celsius,  Gulmarg recorded the minimum temperature of minus 10.0 degrees Celsius, Kupwara recorded a low of minus 4.6 degrees Celsius and maximum of 3.2 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan issued an avalanche warning for nine districts of Kashmir division in view of the inclement weather and snowfall. The warning has been issued for the avalanche-prone areas in district Anantnag, Kulgam, Budgam, Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora, Ganderbal, Kargil and Leh. As per a handout, the Divisional Commissioner has asked the Deputy Commissioners of all these districts to advise the people living in avalanche prone areas not to venture out during the snowfall. Besides, they have been directed to take all the precautionary measures and to keep the SDRF, Police and Para-medical staff with ambulances in readiness to deal with any untoward incident.