Owais Gul
Srinagar, Jan 6: Kashmir Valley has received fresh snowfall, bringing down the mercury further and also leading to the delay in flight operations on Monday morning.
Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, experienced the fresh snowfall in the last 24 hours with the details revealing that Sonamarg and Gulmarg, have recorded the heavy snowfall with accumulation of 16 inches and 15 inches respectively till Monday morning.
According to the details, Doodhpatri and Yousmarg in Central Kashmir’s Budgam and Pir ki Gali in Shopian recorded a snowfall of one foot each while Srinagar City recorded 2-3 inches of snow during the period.
As per an Independent Weather Forecaster, Aadil Maqbool, the maximum areas across Kashmir Anantnag, Qazigund, Kulgam, Kokernag, Pulwama, Budgam plains, Ganderbal, Kupwara and others recorded a light snowfall during the period with majority of these areas witnessing an accumulation of just 1-2 inches of snow till Monday morning.
Pahalgam has recorded a snow accumulation of 6 inches till this morning, he said.
Moreover, the Meteorological department (MeT), Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, said that the weather conditions would remain generally dry from tomorrow till January 10 while on January 11 and 12, there is a possibility of light rain in plains of Jammu and snow at isolated to scattered places.
He added that from January 13-15, the weather would remain generally dry.
Meanwhile, in its advisory, the MeT has stated that the tourists, travelers and transporters are advised to follow administration and traffic advisory.
Furthermore, the night temperatures improved across Kashmir and settled above normal with Srinagar recording a minimum temperature of minus 0.5 degree while Qazigund, a gateway of Kashmir, recorded a night temperature of 0.0 degree.
Pahalgam, a famous tourist destination has recorded a low of minus 1.4 degree Celsius while Kokernag, Kupwara and Gulmarg, a famous ski-resort have recorded a low of minus 0.4 degree, minus 0.3 degree and 4.5 degree Celsius respectively.
Meanwhile, all the morning flights at Srinagar airport were delayed due to bad weather.
Director Srinagar airport, Javed Anjum said that flights that were scheduled for the morning have been delayed till 11 am due to bad weather.
“The runway is clear, and the flight status is on standby. Operations will resume after 11 am, depending on weather conditions,” he had said.
The flight operations were, however, resumed after 11:00AM with officials stating that the operations have resumed as the first flight from Amritsar landed at Srinagar International Airport.
The flight operations resumed after a day-long suspension as all the flights scheduled to and from Srinagar International Airport were cancelled after the dense fog reduced visibility to zero at the airport.
