The season’s first snowfall lashed the plains of the Kashmir Valley on Saturday while the higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir received heavy snowfall, the Met Office said.
Srinagar received 3 inches of snow, Aharbal (10 inches) Manzgam (eight), Malwan (five), Kulgam (four), Kund (eight), Baramulla (five), Kupwara (five), 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. National highways and inter-district roads are being cleared.
However, inter-district roads are open for traffic.
Snow at airport runway and hospitals are being cleared on a priority basis. It’s being ensured that electricity and water supply should not get affected especially of essential services departments. The administration is geared up. Men and machinery have been put in place to face any situation.
“Snow clearance is being done since 3 am. We were ready for the wet spell as it was predicted by Met. We have kept snow clearing machines in every district, and all deputy commissioners are monitoring the situation very closely,” an official said.
The tourism department has started snow sports activities in Gulmarg to boost winter tourism.
“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,” an official of the Met department said.
The minimum temperature was minus 0.6 degrees Celsius in Srinagar, minus 0.9 in Pahalgam and minus 4 in Gulmarg on Saturday.
Leh town of Ladakh recorded minus 6.1, Kargil minus 3 and Drass minus 6.3 as the minimum temperature on Saturday.
Jammu city had 10.3, Katra 8.6, Batote minus 0.7, Bannihal 0.2 and Bhaderwah minus 0.4 as the night`s lowest temperatures.
Earlier, two spells of heavy snowfall had happened in the hills of Kashmir.
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