Kashmir's higher reaches receive season's first snowfall

Higher reaches of the Kashmir Valley received the season's first snowfall on Monday, sending chilly winds into the plains, said the weather office here.

"Snowfall in the hills this morning has resulted in chilly winds in the plains of the Valley today (on Monday), but the nightlong cloud cover helped improvement in the overall night temperatures here," said a weather official, adding that against Sunday's minus 0.9 degrees Celsius here, the minimum temperature rose above the freezing point to settle at 2.8 degrees.

"In Pahalgam, the lowest night temperature today (Monday) was minus 2.2 showing an improvement of 1.3 degrees over yesterday's (Sunday) minimum. There was similar improvement in night temperatures in Gulmarg and other places in the Valley.

"There is going to be further improvement in night temperatures during the next two days, but the day temperatures would come down during this period," the weather official said.

To the disappointment of Kashmiris, the weather office has ruled out any rain or snowfall in the plains during the next three to four days here.

"Foggy weather conditions would continue till November 24, but there would be no rain or snow in the Valley's plains during this period," an official said.

Foggy weather has been disrupting air traffic from the Valley and most flights to and from Srinagar international airport remained suspended for second consecutive day Monday.

--IANS

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