Higher reaches receive first snowfall; rains in Jammu, Mughal road closed

JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Higher reaches in Kashmir and Jammu’s hilly districts received first snowfall of the season on Wednesday while the plains were lashed by rain, bringing down the mercury quite significantly, even as the Mughal Road, connecting the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu region with South Kashmir's Shopian district, was closed for vehicular traffic.
While cool breeze blew the entire day in Jammu and neighbouring district, the rains made their presence felt in the late hours.
The weather department on Tuesday predicted widespread moderate to heavy snowfall and rains in the hills and plains of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh union territories for three days starting from Wednesday.
The historic Mughal Road was closed for vehicular traffic on Wednesday after snowfall in the high altitude areas.
There was snowfall in high altitude areas including Pir Ki Gali on Tuesday due to which the road was closed for vehicular traffic as a precautionary measure, the officials said.
They said commuters had been directed to avoid travel along the road to avoid any untoward incident.
Meanwhile, the officials said traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway was going on smoothly despite rains.
Light motor vehicles are moving from both sides on nearly 300-km highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, while heavy vehicles were allowed to move during evening timing from Jammu to Srinagar.
The movement of heavy vehicles was restricted to one-way owing to overall condition of the road, especially between Jawahar Tunnel and Ramban, coupled with narrow width of the highway at some places owing to the ongoing widening and upgrading work.
The weather system is likely to cause temporary disruptions on surface transport especially over passes like Zojila, Srinagar-Jammu, Leh-Manali Highway, Mughal Road due to landslides, low temperatures and heavy snowfall.
"There is an active western disturbance. Its interaction with Cyclone MAHA (currently lying over East central Arabian sea) is most likely to cause widespread moderate to heavy snowfall and rain in the plains of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh from November 6 to 8," Director, State Meteorological department, Sonam Lotus, said.
In Kashmir, higher reaches including Gulmarg and Sonamarg tourist resorts received first snowfall of the season on Wednesday while the plains were lashed by rain, bringing down the mercury by more than 10 degrees.
"Snowfall was witnessed in higher reaches of Kashmir valley including Gulmarg and Sonamarg in the wee hours today (Wednesday) while the city and other plains were lashed by rainfall," an official of the MET department said.
This was the first snowfall in the inhabited areas of the valley.
The change in weather normally brings cheers to the faces of the people associated with tourism but they have their fingers crossed in view of the prevailing situation in the valley in the wake of abrogation of Article 370.
"We do not know if the tourists will come to Kashmir this winter, although indications are that we will receive plenty of snow this season," Basharat Ahmad, a travel agent, said.
The downpour in the plains has significantly brought down the day temperature in the city.
While the maximum temperature recorded on Tuesday was 18.6 degrees Celsius, the city recorded just 5.6 degrees Celsius at 3.30 pm on Wednesday, the MET department official said.
The winter chill has set in early this year in Kashmir as the maximum temperature during the last couple of days has settled a couple of degrees below normal for this time of the season, he added.