Snow lashes upper reaches, rain in plains

Snow lashes upper reaches, rain in plainsAfter Landslides, Fresh Traffic Disallowed on Highway Srinagar:  Amid weather advisory of downpour for next 48-hours, plains in Kashmir Valley witnessed more rain while upper reaches accumulated fresh layer of snow on Wednesday. The inclement weather conditions forced authorities to disallow fresh traffic on Srinagar-Jammu highway, the only surface link connecting Valley with rest of the world, after 1300 hours today. SSP Traffic, Highway, Kifayat Haider told that there were landslides at three places including Kounsarnar, Srinagar and almost 90 percent from Jammu. Efforts are underway to clear remaining traffic,” he said, adding that the decision to disallow fresh traffic was taken as precautionary measure.  The sop also claimed that there no traffic was stranded on the highway, considered as lifeline for the Valley.     A spokesman of the weather office here told that Srinagar, the summer capital of the state, witnessed rainfall of 0.5mm from 0830 to 1430 hours.  Pahalgam, famous health resort in south Kashmir, recorded rainfall of 0.6 mm during the time while its neighbouring towns— Qazigund and Kokernag had 7.8 mm and 2.4 mm of rain during the time respectively, the MeT official.Kupwara, the frontier north Kashmir district, recorded rain or snow equivalent to 10.8 mm while Jammu, the winter capital of the state, had 1.3mm of rain. Snow-draped Gulmarg also witnessed fresh rainfall. The world famous ski resort was the coldest place in entire Kashmir division, recording a low of minus 7.7 deg Celsius. Kargil, second most inhabited area in high altitude desert of Ladakh, was the coldest place in the Kashmir division, recording minimum of minus 14.8 deg Cel. Leh recorded a low of minus 10.6 deg Cel, the spokesman added.Regarding the forecast for next 24 hours, he said that rain/snow will occur at most places in Jammu & Kashmir divisions and at a few places in Kargil district.  “Rather heavy to heavy rain/snowfall would occur at a few places in J&K division during next 48 hours,” the spokesman added.