JOIN USHeavy rains and snowfall threw normal life out of gear in Jammu & Kashmir on Thursday, disrupting train and air services in the state.
The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was closed for traffic, while several flights scheduled to take off from Srinagar airport were cancelled.
The Meteorological department had predicted rains and snowfall to continue till February 24.
A Met official said that the famous ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir received three feet of fresh snowfall, while the hill resort of Pahalgam in south Kashmir recorded 4 cm of fresh snow during the night. The minimum temperature in Gulmarg settled at minus 4.4 degrees Celsius, down by nearly three degrees from minus 1.8 degrees the previous night, while mercury in Pahalgam settled at a low of minus 1.8 degrees Celsius, three degrees from the 1.4 degrees recorded the previous night.
Srinagar, which received 22.4 mm of rainfall in the night, also witnessed snowfall during the day on Thursday; he said and added the city recorded a low of 4 degrees Celsius, against 5.4 degrees the previous night.
A Traffic Police official told Deccan Herald that the Srinagar-Jammu highway, the only surface link between Kashmir and the rest of the Country, remained closed for vehicular traffic in the wake of fresh snowfall and landslides at several places on the 294-km stretch. Officials also said bad weather forced cancellation of several flights from Srinagar ‘International’ Airport on Thursday. “Cancellations have become inevitable as snow had accumulated on the runway,” they said.
Meanwhile, fresh snowfall in Srinagar led to inundation of some main areas in the city, including those badly affected by last year’s flash floods like Regal Chowk, Residency Road and Lal Chowk.