Moderate Snowfall Continues in Kashmir

Srinagar, Feb 3 (IANS) Moderate snowfall continued in the Kashmir Valley Tuesday but the weather office forecast an improvement in atmosphere from Wednesday afternoon.

"Moderate to heavy snowfall will generally continue in the Kashmir Valley today with very heavy snowfall at isolated places, but weather will start improving from tomorrow afternoon," a meteorological department official said here Tuesday.

"The extended dry spell in December and January has now been broken by the present rain and snowfall."

Reports of snowfall came from all other parts of the Kashmir Valley, including the hill stations of Pahalgam, Sonamarg and Gulmarg.

Over three feet of snow has gathered on the ground at these hill stations and more continued to fall in the morning.

The Met Office here said the minimum temperature was 0.6 degree Celsius in Srinagar, and 0.8 degree below zero in Pahalgam, 5.2 degrees Celsius below the freezing point in Gulmarg, minus 4.9 degrees in Leh and minus 13.5 in Kargil.

The minimum temperature in Jammu city was 10.4 degrees Celsius. It was minus 0.5 in Banihal town, minus 0.9 in Bhaderwah town and minus 0.7 in Batote town of Jammu region Tuesday.

The strategic Srinagar-Jammu national highway was restored Tuesday for one-way traffic after two days of closure due to snow and rain along the over 300-km road.