Fresh snowfall hits normal life in valley, highway shut, air traffic suspended

Srinagar: Kashmir parts on Saturday received fresh snowfall while the minimum temperature increased slightly across the Valley. The weatherman, however, predicted improvement in the weather conditions from Sunday afternoon.
Reports said the parts of Valley received light to moderate snowfall from the intervening night of Friday-Saturday while Gulmarg, the world famous ski-resort has received moderate to heavy snowfall till 05:30 PM.
The morning flights were delayed at the Srinagar airport after fresh spell of snow in parts of Kashmir valley. Divisional Commissioner Kashmir P K Pole said that due to snow no flight operations were allowed at Srinagar airport.
The Srinagar-Jammu Highway also remained cut-off due to the fresh snowfall in the valley. Earlier in the day, traffic was allowed on Srinagar Jammu Highway from Jammu towards Srinagar, but due to continuous snowfall at both sides of Jawhar Tunnel traffic was suspended on the highway, officials said.
ADGP Traffic T.Namgyal said the traffic was suspended on the Highway in view of continuous snowfall.
“No vehicle was allowed to move on the highway after the intensity of snowfall increased,” Namgyal said. “The Traffic will remain also suspended on 24 January as well,” he said.
Fresh communiqué by Traffic Police for 24-01-2020 read, “No vehicular movement shall be allowed on Jammu-Srinagar NHW from either side in view of shooting stones/mudslides at several places on NHW, snow accumulation around the Jawahar Tunnel and inclement weather prediction issued by MeT department.”
Mughal Road continues to remain closed due to heavy snow accumulation.
Kashmir Valley’s tourist destinations Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonemarg also received fresh snowfall.
Meanwhile with the fresh snowfall life has badly got affected in Srinagar where many roads saw the accumulation of snow and slippery conditions of roads.
Massive traffic jams across the city were also witnessed Saturday and it took hours for people to reach their destinations.
Earlier Divisional Administration Kashmir had directed all the officers to stay alert and keep the men and machinery ready to tackle any post snowfall situation in the valley.
Pertinently, the weatherman had predicted another spell of snow across J&K from January 22 evening to January 24. Officials in the local Meteorological department (MeT) informed that Gulmarg received one foot snow till 05:30 PM while Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir received 11.4 cm snow till the same period.
The officials further added that Qazigund, Kokernag and Pahalgam in southern districts received 1 cm, 15.0 cm and 19.4 cm snow respectively, adding that Kupwara in north Kashmir received 5.6 cm snow till 05:30 PM.
With the fresh snowfall across Kashmir, the minimum temperature has started increasing with officials in MeT informing that the mercury settled at minus 2.0 degrees Celsius last as compared to minus 6 degrees Celsius previous night.He also informed that the minimum temperature in Gulmarg was recorded at minus 4.8 degrees Celsius last night.
Meanwhile, Deputy Director MeT, Mukhtar Ahmad said the weather would start gradually improving across the Valley from midnight while from Sunday afternoon; there is possibility of complete improvement in the prevalent weather conditions. About night temperature, he said that the minimum temperature would rise again this night while it may go down by two to three degrees in next night Nonetheless, as the harshest 40-day winter period, Chila-i-Kalan will culminate in the end of this month, the MeT Deputy Director said that the minimum as well the maximum temperature would also start increasing gradually after couple of days