Snowfall in hills, rains lash plains
Gopal Sharma/ Fayaz Bukhari
JAMMU/SRINAGAR, Mar 3: The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway which was blocked due to massive landslides in Banihal and Ramban in the morning during rain was restored in the afternoon while rain lashed J&K and hilly areas witnessed fresh snowfall during last 24 hours.
Official sources said that amidst rain massive landslide took place at Chambalbas near Banihal at around 8.15 am today, thus blocking busy Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. Several vehicles and people on board had clean shave in the incident. At around 11.20 am, another landslide took place at Karol near Ramban and the highway was blocked at another point in the Ramban sector.
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Due to frequent falling of boulders and mudslide, the restoration work could not be initiated immediately. The National Highway authorities managed to restore one way highway at around 2 pm. Then the movement of stranded vehicles was allowed from Kashmir side towards Jammu. However, LMVs were allowed from both the sides and it created jam like situation at many places.
Meanwhile, due to rain and bad weather the chopper service to Mata Vaishnodevi from base camp Katra and battery car between Adhkunwari and Bhawan remained suspended while onfoot yatra continued smoothly. Many hilly areas of Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur and Reasi experienced fresh snowfall while almost entire Jammu region witnessed rain since last night.
The MeT office has predicted dry weather during next two days but widespread rain on March 6 and 7 in the region.
Reports from Srinagar said that Gulmarg received fresh snowfall while rains lashed parts of Kashmir with Weatherman forecasting widespread rains and snowfall between March 6 and 8.
With overnight cloud cover, the night temperature hovered around above freezing across the region barring Gulmarg.
Weatherman has forecast widespread light to moderate rain and snowfall in Kashmir valley betweeb March 6 and 8.
“As expected, light rain/snow occurred at some places Kashmir. Currently, weather is overcast to cloudy at most places of Kashmir & at some places of Jammu,” a Meteorological department official said.
“Current weather is likely to continue till tomorrow morning. Thereafter, weather is likely to remain partly cloudy during March 4 and 5,” he said, adding, “Another Western Disturbance is likely to affect J&K during 6th (night) to 8th due to which we expect widespread Light to Moderate Rain/Snow( mainly over higher reaches).”
He, however, said that there was no forecast of any significant weather till March 7.
Meanwhile, Gulmarg received fresh snowfall while rains lashed some parts of Jammu and Kashmir including Srinagar leading to fall in day temperatures.
A MeT official said that Srinagar had traces of rainfall since last night while it recorded a low of 4.6 degree Celsius against last night’s 4.8 degree Celsius. Qazigund had 0.4mm of rain and recorded a low of 0.9 degree Celsius against 2.0 degree Celsius the previous night.Kokernag had a low of 0.9 degree Celsius against 1.4 degree Celsius the previous night.
Pahalgam recorded a low of 0.5 degree Celsius against minus 0.8 degree Celsius last night. Gulmarg received few inches of fresh snowfall and recorded a low of minus 4.4 degree Celsius against minus 5.4 degree Celsius the previous night. The temperature at the place was 0.1 degree Celsius below normal for this time of the year. Kupwara recorded a low of 4.6 degree Celsius against 3.5 degree Celsius the previous night.
Leh recorded a minimum of minus 4.6 degree Celsius against last night minus 6.4 degree Celsius the previous night while Kargil recorded a low of minus 9.0 degree Celsius. Drass recorded a low of minus 11.7 degree Celsius against 17.8 degree Celsius the previous night.
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