cold wave in kashmir Valley

For the third consecutive day, entire Kashmir valley is in the grip of an intense cold wave, with both the day and night temperatures plummeting further.

Icy winds swept across the Kashmir valley making people to shiver and forced majority of them to stay indoors.

Reports of fresh snowfall have come from the higher reaches of the Valley while as rains lashed the plains that is said to be reason behind the intensification of cold wave.

An official at Meteorological department said that the higher reaches of the Kashmir valley are expected to receive light snowfall over the next 24 hours. He said that some plains in the Kashmir valley are expected to receive rains over the next 24 hours.

"There are reports of snowfall in the higher reaches of the Valley but as no weather observatories are there we cannot measure snowfall at such places. Similarly light rains have been recorded in some of the plains of the valley and same is expected over the next 24 hours as well," said the MeT official.

He said the day temperature in Srinagar was recorded as 11.0 degrees Celsius while as the minimum temperature was recorded as 4.8 degrees Celsius. "In Jammu the maximum temperature was recorded as 22.9 degrees Celsius while as the minimum temperature was recorded as 14.8 degrees Celsius."

Meanwhile, the 434 kilometres long Srinagar-Leh national highway remained closed for the second day today. The road connecting Bandipora with Gurez has also been closed by the authorities and it would be reopened only when the weather condition improved.

"Both the Srinagar-Leh national highway and Bandipora-Gurez road have been closed due to the snowfall and slippery conditions. The road connecting Machil and Tangdhar areas with rest of the Valley has also been closed due to snowfall. As and when the weather improved, these routes would be thrown open for vehicular traffic," said Aamir Ali, Head Disaster Management Centre, Kashmir and OSD with Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir.

Aamir asked people not to undertake journey on the closed routes saying that the same would be full of risks. "As on today the routes are closed and people should undertake the journey only when the weather improved. They should cooperate with administration as their safety is our prime concern."

The MeT department has already issued travel advisory for people traveling on Srinagar-Leh highway and Bandipora-Gurez road as moderate to heavy snowfall is expected at some places on these routes till Friday morning. The department has asked people to exercise maximum restraint while traveling on both these routes.

"People living in snow-bound areas along the Srinagar-Leh highway and Bandipora-Gurez road should take extra precautions while traveling around. The people traveling to these areas should also take precautions as it is expected that some areas would experience moderate to heavy snowfall till the morning of November 11 (Friday)," said Sonam Lotus, Director MeT office, Srinagar.

He said travel advisories are issued to people living in the snow-bound only when there are apprehensions of heavy snowfall. He said the same situation persisted in some of the areas along Pir Panjal range adding that people should be cautious until the warning persists.

It would be in place to mention here that entire Kashmir valley has been engulfed by a thick blanket of black clouds since November 8. This has led to the increase in the cold wave conditions across the Valley and the day temperature has gone down over the past three days.

The weatherman has forcast improvement in the weather on Friday afternoon while some reports suggested that there would be more rains on Saturday with Sunday once again being cloudy.