SRINAGAR: Srinagar witnessed the first snowfall of the season today on Saturday, while the higher reaches of Kashmir, including Gulmarg and Sonamarg tourist resorts, received heavy snowfall, the Met Office said.
An official of the MeT department said as expected, light to moderate snowfall occurred in plains of the Valley during the night while heavy snowfall occurred in the higher reaches of J&K and Ladakh.
“There would be an improvement in the overall weather condition from today onwards. No major snowfall is expected till December 20 during which the weather is expected to remain mainly dry,” the official added.
He said that Srinagar received 3 inches of snow on Saturday while Gulmarg received over a foot of fresh snowfall.
All major highways including the Srinagar-Jammu, Srinagar-Leh and the Mughal Road are closed for traffic on Saturday.
There was fresh snowfall of nearly a foot in the Banihal sector of Srinagar-Jammu highway.
Gulmarg famous ski-resort in north Kashmir was the coldest place in the region where minimum temperature was minus 4.0 degrees Celsius.
Srinagar, the summer capital of the J&K recorded a low of minus 0.6 while the mercury in Qazigund in south Kashmir settled at a low of 0.2 degrees Celsius.
The night temperature in Pahalgam – the famous health resort which also serves as one of the base camps for the annual Amarnath Yatra – settled at a low of minus 0.9 degrees.
Kokernag town recorded a low of minus 0.4 degrees Celsius while Kupwara town in north Kashmir registered a low of minus 0.5 degrees Celsius last night.
Jammu city recorded 10.9 degrees Celsius, Katra town 8.6, Batote minus 0.7, Banihal 0.2 and Bhaderwah minus 0.4 as the night’s lowest temperatures.
