Poor weather dampens market buzz ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr

Srinagar, Apr 18: As the last few days before Eid-ul-Fitr witness people’s rush for shopping, the inclement weather forecast until April 21 dampened the market buzz in the valley on Tuesday.
Mohammad Maqbool, who runs a sweets and confectionary shop in Srinagar, said that they could not display their sweet items outside their shop due to the continuous rainfall since morning.
“We normally fix a tent outside our shop to display the stock of sweets and confectionary for sales, but the wet weather played a spoiler,” he said, adding that they are hopeful of improvement in the weather and after which they will display their stock.
The street vendors from various parts of the valley who also fix their cots temporarily along roadsides to sell their merchandise like kitchen items, utensils, clothing, and bakery items also struggled to make any sales due to the rainfall.
In Lal Chowk, the street vendors were seen struggling to place their items on cots for sale, as the intermittent spells of rainfall did not let them settle.
Notably, soon after the Jummat-ul-Vida and Shab-e-Qadar occasions, markets often witness an upsurge in sales with people thronging the shops to buy dresses for children, food items, bakery items, mutton, and other items.
Meanwhile, as per the J&K’s weather department, the intermittent rain and thunderstorms are very likely to continue till April 21, and that 19th April will “very likely witness intermittent light to moderate rain/snowfall (over higher reaches) at many places”.
The weather official said that during the wet spell of April 18 to 19, a thunderstorm with strong gusty wind reaching 20-30 kmph and hailstorm is also possible at some places in Jammu & Kashmir.
As per the MeT officials, last 24 hours till 0830 hours Tuesday, Srinagar received 6.9mm of rain, Qazigund 11.0mm, Pahalgam 22.4mm, Kupwara 15.7mm, Gulmarg 12.2mm, Jammu 6.2mm, Banihal 21.1mm, Katra 4.4mm, and Bhaderwah 9.2mm.
The temperature, as per the MeT for Srinagar, recorded a low of 11.0°C against 10.7°C on Monday night and it was 3.1°C below normal for the summer capital.