Fresh snowfall in Kashmir shuts Srinagar-Jammu highway, flights affected

Kashmir valley received fresh snowfall and rains on Friday leading to the closure of the SrinagarJammu national highway and impacting the flight operations to and from the Valley officials saidWhile the higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir experienced moderate to heavy snowfall many areas in the plains received light to moderate snowfall they saidThe fresh snowfall started early in the morning and continued till the last reports came in they saidThe famous ski resort of Gulmarg tourist resorts of Pahalgam and Sonamarg and many other places experienced fresh snowfall they saidAlso read IN PHOTOS Snowfall in Kashmir valley brings respite from intense coldThe upper reaches of Srinagar also received snowfall while the plain areas were lashed by rainsThe inclement weather has resulted in the closure of the SrinagarJammu national highway iquest the only allweather road connecting the Valley with the rest of the country the officials saidThe highway was closed for traffic due to landslides in Mehar area of Ramban district and slippery conditions of the road they saidThe officials said road clearance operations are going on but continuous snowfall and rain are making the job difficultThe weather conditions also affected the air traffic at the Srinagar airport here they saidWhile flight operations took place in the morning the operations were affected after 9 am Several flights have been delayed due to low visibility the officials saidThe operations will resume after the visibility improves they addedMeanwhile the wet weather pushed the night temperature up at most places in the ValleyThe mercury settled above the freezing point in Srinagar and QazigundSrinagar recorded a low of 1 degree Celsius on Thursday night up from minus 02 degrees the night before the officials saidQazigund the gateway to the Valley registered a minimum temperature of 02 degrees Celsius while Kokernag in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 02 degrees they saidThe minimum in Kupwara a frontier district settled above the freezing point at a low of minus 07 degreesPahalgam in Anantnag district which also serves as a base camp for the annual Amarnath Yatra registered a low of minus 24 degrees CelsiusThe minimum temperature in Gulmarg in Baramulla district was recorded at minus 06 degrees Celsius up from minus 55 degrees Celsius the officials saidThe MeT Office had said that fairly widespread light rain in the plains of Kashmir and Jammu divisions and light to moderate snow over the higher reaches is expected on FridayThe weather will remain mainly dry from Saturday till January 18Kashmir is currently under the grip of Chillai Kalan the 40day harshest weather period when the chances of snowfall are maximum and most frequentChillai Kalan begins on December 21 and ends on January 30 The cold wave continues even after that with a 20daylong Chillai Khurd small cold and a 10daylong Chillai Bachha baby cold following itThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever