MeT forecasts snowfall on New Year’s eve
Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Dec 29: The weather in Kashmir improved today after the snowfall with a slight rise in night temperatures and life returned to normal with the re-opening of Srinagar-Jammu National Highway (NH-44) and restoration of train and flight operations.
Air traffic to and from Srinagar International Airport was restored today, a day after heavy snowfall forced cancellation of all flights to Srinagar.
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“The flights to Srinagar resumed this morning with a couple of morning flight cancellations. However, additional flights also operated from the airport to clear the stranded passengers,” an Airport Authority of India official said.
An official said that the improvement in weather facilitated the re-opening of the NH-44. Earlier in the morning, Light Motor Vehicles were cleared towards Jammu and in the afternoon, the heavy vehicles were also allowed to ply. He said that in the evening the highway was open for two-way traffic.
Kashmir witnessed the first major snowfall of the season on Friday evening and it continued till Saturday. This led to disruption in the essential services including electricity, water and transport services.
The Meteorological Centre in Srinagar has predicted another spell of snowfall from January 3 to January 6. This is expected to bring light to moderate snowfall at several locations in the Kashmir division and scattered areas in Jammu division.
“At a few higher reaches, there is a possibility of moderate to heavy snowfall during the period”, it said adding “there is possibility of light snow at isolated places during January 1 and 2 also”.
“The cold wave conditions will continue to prevail over the Kashmir valley till end of the year”, the MeT office said.
It also issued an advisory stating that in view of snowfall, sub- freezing temperature and icy conditions over roads including plains/higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir, Tourists/travellers/ Transporters are advised to follow Administraion/Traffic advisory.
There is no let-up in icy cold weather conditions in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir valley that have frozen major water bodies disrupting normal life.
The minimum temperature in Srinagar was recorded at -0.2 °C against the -1.0 °C recorded a day ago. This was 2.4 °C above average for the place.
The ski resort of Gulmarg turned the coldest place with the minimum temperature plummeting further today and recorded at -8.5 °C against -5.9 °C a day ago. This was 2.6 °C below normal for the ski resort.
Pahalgam plunged to a low of -8.0°C today after snowfall against the -2.8°C recorded the previous night and it was 2.8°C below normal for the tourist spot.
Kokernag had a low of -1.8°C against the -1.5°C a day ago and it was 0.9°C above normal for the picnic spot of the Valley during this period of the season.
Qazigund recorded at -0.4°C today against the -0.6°C the previous night. This was 2.3°C above normal for the place.
The night temperature at Kupwara also witnessed a slight improvement and recorded at -1.0°C against the -1.2°C the previous night and this was 2.0°C above normal for the place during this period of the season.
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