Srinagar-Jammu highway reopens as snowfall, rains abate for now, few vehicles ply

The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was closed for traffic after fresh snowfall and rain in parts of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday morning. Later in the day, however, the highway was reopened for traffic after the snowfall stopped, according to the authorities.

Traffic officials said that the movement of traffic was stopped on Monday morning but post noon a few vehicles were plying. The authorities had on Sunday said that if weather permits small vehicles would be allowed to ply from Jammu to Srinagar.

“From 9 am, the road was closed as the areas around the tunnel and Banihal received snowfall,” an official of the traffic control room said.

The Jawahar Tunnel and Banihal fall to the south of Kashmir and connect it to Jammu division which further connects the region to the rest of the country.

The Mughal road in South Kashmir and the Leh-Kargil road are already blocked due to heavy snow.

The light snowfall and rains continued during the night and early on Monday in many parts of the northern valley for the third consecutive day as well even as the weather office has predicted a slight improvement from Monday afternoon.

The precipitation in the region followed a western disturbance, with winds blowing in from the Mediterranean that hit Jammu and Kashmir on Friday after months of dry weather.

Residents of North Kashmir and capital Srinagar said that rains continued throughout the night in the plains while the higher reaches got light snowfall.

The morning update by the meteorological centre of Srinagar said that the snow depth in the ski resort of Gulmarg in North Kashmir is 19 cm while it is 1.5 cm in Banihal to the south of the valley in Jammu division.

“In the northern Kupwara district, there is snow accumulation of 2 to 3.5 feet on the three high altitude passes to border areas of Karnah, Keran and Machil. All the three roads are closed and machinery will be deployed as soon as the weather improves,” Deputy Director MeT Mukhtar Ahmad said quoting the Kupwara administration.

The minimum (night) temperatures in the Kashmir valley was the lowest in Gulmarg at minus 3 degree Celsius while it was minus 0.2 in Kupwara. Capital Srinagar recorded a minimum of 2.8 degrees Celsius during the night while it was 7.7 degrees on Sunday.

Ahmad said that the weather is expected to improve from Monday. “The sun will also come out on Monday afternoon. There is a prediction of another wet spell on November 18,” he said.

As against the monsoon in the rest of the country, Kashmir mostly owes its precipitation to winds blowing from the Mediterranean Sea which is locally called ‘Western Disturbance’.

The UT has been witnessing unusually dry weather this year causing immense problems in the availability of water for irrigation as well as for drinking.

On November 4, there was very light snowfall in the higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh but there was no precipitation for the plains.

The summer this year was abnormally dry.

“The year saw abnormally dry weather in Jammu and Kashmir. The precipitation due to Western Disturbance was almost zero while the rainfall due to monsoon from July 1 to October 1 was 35 percent less than normal,” said Mohammad Hussain.