Snowfall at Patnitop, hills of Vaishnodevi
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR/JAMMU, Jan 16: Many hilly areas of Jammu and Kashmir today received snowfall and rains plummeting day temperatures while the night temperatures showed some improvement across the region.
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A Meteorological Department official said that moderate snowfall was recorded in Sinthan Top, Duksum, Kokernag, Kishtwar, Doda, Poonch, Rajouri, hilly areas of Udhampur and other places where up to three to six inches of snow accumulated this evening in these hilly areas.
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He said that the snowfall was experienced under the influence of a Western Disturbance (WD), which mostly affected the southern parts of Kashmir.
Duksum recorded a snowfall of 6 inches while Pahalgam recorded around 4 inches and Baltal Pahalgam and Chandanwari registered 6-8 inches of snow today.
Qaizgund recorded a snow accumulation of two inches while light snowfall of 2 cm was recorded in Shopian and Pulwama areas.
Light snowfall was also recorded from Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Doodhpathri and Srinagar areas.
The light snowfall has, however, brought the mercury down in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir.
Meanwhile, many parts of Jammu region experienced light rain while mountainous areas fresh snowfall.
Official sources said that Trikuta hills of Mata Vaishnodevi received light snowfall while the chopper service to the cave shrine from the base camp also remained affected for several hours during the day due to bad weather. However, it was resumed later in the afternoon. The pilgrimage, however, remained smooth on-foot track.
Hilly resorts of Patnitop, Nathatop, Bhaderwah, Latti, Dudu Basantgarh areas of Udhampur and Sarthal in Kathua also received fresh snowfall. About three to six inch snowfall was experienced in these areas.
Dera Gali area of Thannamandi and Budhal in Rajouri besides, Mandi, Loran and Bafliaz and Mughal Road also received sbnowfall during the day. Due to snowfall, the vehicular traffic to many hilly areas has been affected.
Mughal Road due to heavy snowfall at Pir Ki Gali, Bani- Basohli road because of snow at Chattergalla Pass and Kishtwar-Kokernag road in view of accumulation of massive snow at Sinthon Top remained closed. These roads are expected to be closed for the next about one week.
However, the traffic movement on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remained smooth during the day. But, movement of oil/gas tankers was hit due to slippery road condition and snowfall along the old alignment of the highway at Patnitop and ahead of Banihal and Jawahar tunnel route.
Against yesterday’s 11.0 degree Celsius, the maximum temperature in Srinagar settled at 3.4 degree Celsius.
In Qazigund, the day temperature settled at 3.2 degree Celsius while in Pahalgam, it settled at 1.0 degree Celsius. Kupwara recorded the maximum temperature of 6.5 degree Celsius while Kokernag and Gulmarg recorded a maximum temperature of 3.0 degree Celsius and minus 0.7 degree respectively.
The Temple City Jammu recorded a minimum temperature of 7.7 degrees Celsius and maximum 18.0 deg, holy township of Katra a maximum temperature of 15.4 deg C and minimum 8.0 deg, Bhaderwah a minimum temp of minus 0.6 and maximum 1.6 deg C while Banihal town registered a maximum temp of 5.3 and minimum 0.6 deg C temperature today.
Director Meteorological department (MeT), Dr Mukhtar Ahmad said that the weather would remain generally cloudy from tomorrow till January 19, saying that the possibility of light snow at isolated higher reaches can’t be ruled out.
Overall, he said nothing significant is expected till January 19.
“From January 20-21, the weather would remain generally cloudy with the possibility of light snow at isolated to scattered places. On January 22 and 23rd, the weather would remain generally cloudy with possibility of light to moderate rain in plains of Jammu and snow at scattered to fairly widespread places”.
In its advisory, the MeT has advised the tourists, travelers and transporters to follow administration and traffic advisory.
However, the fresh snowfall has led to the closure of some vital roads and highways in Kashmir today.
As per the details, Sinthan-Kishtwar, Mughal Road, Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri, Bhaderwah-Chamba roads have been closed as a precautionary measure after the fresh snowfall in Kashmir.
An official said that the two trains under number 74628 and 74617 between Budgam-Banihal were cancelled today due to the heavy snowfall from Banihal to Awantipora.
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