Gulmarg, Amarnath cave, other hilly areas experience fresh snowfall, rains lash plains

Srinagar: The higher reaches of Kashmir including Gulmarg, Shopian and Amarnath cave experienced fresh snowfall while rains lashed plains intermittently on Saturday, bringing down the temperature across the Valley.
The fresh wet spell from last evening brought relief to the people from scorching heat as the maximum areas of Jammu and Kashmir were reeling under heat wave where maximum temperature crossed above 30 degree Celsius frequently from the last over some weeks.
Deputy Director Meteorological department (MeT), Mukhtar Ahmad said that the snowfall has occurred at many higher reaches of Kashmir and some among them include Gulmarg, Amarnath cave, Shopian and hilly areas of Sonamarg.
He said that it is not for the first time that snowfall has occurred in the month of June as whenever the temperatures go down, the hilly areas usually experience snowfall.
Moreover, the rains lashed the plains including Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir where mercury plummeted and settled at 19.3 degrees Celsius. Srinagar recorded the hottest day of the season on June 15 at 32.8 degrees Celsius.
Gulmarg where a fresh snowfall was on Saturday witnessed recorded a maximum temperature of 8.5 degrees Celsius.
Director MeT, Sonum Lotus while sharing the details of forecast, informed that the weather would remain generally cloudy with intermittent rain and snow over the higher reaches till 21st June.
He said as per the forecast the weather conditions would improve from June 21 afterwards.
Lotus also advised the farmers to avoid orchard spray till June 22, 2002.
He also said that the rain may lead to shooting stones in vulnerable area