Kashmir: Snowfall brings cheer to tourists, relief from intense cold

The prolonged dry spell in Kashmir was broken as the valley received overnight light to moderate snowfall which brought slight relief from the intense cold conditions even as the flight operations at the Srinagar airport were affected early morning officials said on FridayThe snowfall which was the seasons first in the plains of the valley however led to the closure of the SrinagarLeh national highway the officials saidWhile the plains of Kashmir received light snowfall the higher reaches experienced moderate snowAlso read Slight respite from cold conditions in Kashmir snowfall likely at scattered placesThe snowfall not only broke the prolonged dry spell in the Kashmir valley it also brought cheers to the touristsSonmarg tourist resort in central Kashmirs Ganderbal district recorded about 20 inches of fresh snowfall while the famous skiing destination of Gulmarg in north Kashmirs Baramulla district received about seven inches the officials saidSrinagar received about 15 inches of snowfall Qazigund six inches Pahalgam five inches Kupwara eight inches and Kokernag two inches they addedThe officials said the plains in Bandipora recorded 25 inches while its upper areas 58 inches The frontier Gurez sector received about 12 inches while the Razdan Pass about 18 inchesThe Zojilla Pass on the SrinagarLeh highway also received about 20 inches of snowfall leading to the closure of the highway connecting Kashmir with Ladakh the officials saidThey said the Mughal Road was also closed for traffic due to accumulation of snowHowever the SrinagarJammu national highway was through for traffic they addedA thick layer of fog engulfed many parts of the valley which led to decrease in the visibility at the Srinagar airport here affecting air traffic early in the morning the officials saidThey said several flights were delayed in the morning due to low visibilityHowever the visibility improved at around 1130 am and the flight operations were started the officials addedThe snowfall led to the improvement in the minimum temperature across the valley except in Gulmarg and Pahalgam and brought cheers to the tourists in the valleyIt feels so good to finally experience the snowfall We had seen the forecast and were hoping to see some snow God heard us and we are enjoying a tourist from Maharashtra saidAnother tourist from Madhya Pradesh said experiencing snowfall was a dream come trueAn official of the MeT department here said the minimum temperature in Srinagar settled at minus 03 degrees Celsius while Pahalgam which also serves as a base camp for the annual Amarnath Yatra recorded a low of minus 49 degrees CelsiusThe minimum in Gulmarg was minus 55 degrees CelsiusIn the frontier Kupwara district the minimum temperature settled at minus 08 degrees Celsius while Qazigund the gateway town to the Valley recorded minus 2 degrees Celsius he saidKokernag also recorded a low of minus 2 degrees CelsiusKashmir is currently under the grip of ChillaiKalan the 40day harshest weather period when the chances of snowfall are maximum and most frequentChillaiKalan begins on December 21 and ends on January 30 The cold wave continues even after that with a 20daylong ChillaiKhurd small cold and a 10daylong ChillaiBachha baby cold following itThe MeT Office has said the weather will remain cloudy on Friday with a possibility of light snowfall at scattered places over higher reachesFrom Saturday till January 8 the weather is likely to remain mainly dry it saidExpect further fall in the minimum temperature across JK and the days will be warmer and the nights colder the MeT Office addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever