Kashmir's min temp improves, fog affects rail ops in north

Mercury in the northern plains today hovered around normal limits, while the minimum temperatures in Kashmir Valley marked an improvement due to overcast sky even as its higher reaches received snow overnight.
Fog continued to affect rail operations in the northern states with 45 trains being delayed while 35 others were rescheduled.
It was a pleasant day in the national capital as the minimum temperature was registered at 9.8 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season's average, while the high settled at 23.4 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal. Humidity oscillated between 100 and 49 per cent.
Some places in the higher reaches of Kashmir division received snow overnight with the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg recording three inches of snow since yesterday, a MeT department official said.

He said the south Kashmir resort of Pahalgam, which serves as a base camp for the annual Amarnath yatra, recorded 5.5 cm of fresh snowfall. Some other areas also experienced rainfall.
However, the nearly 300-km long Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the region's only all weather road connection with the rest of the country, was open for traffic, an official at the Traffic Control Room said.

He said one-way traffic from Jammu towards Srinagar was plying smoothly and no vehicle was allowed to ply in the opposite direction.
Meanwhile, the night temperature in most parts of the Valley and Ladakh region improved, providing slight respite from cold conditions.

The mercury in Srinagar, the summer capital of the state, settled above freezing point at 0.9 degrees Celsius, the Met department official said.
He said the temperature in Qazigund, the gateway town to the Valley, also stayed above the freezing point at a low of 0.8 degrees Celsius.
Kupwara, in north Kashmir, was another place were the minimum settled above the freezing point at 0.2 degrees Celsius, the official said.
Gulmarg, which was the coldest recorded place in the state, registered a minimum temperature of minus 4.6 degrees Celsius, while other places in the Valley registered sub-zero night temperature but close to the freezing point.

Leh, in Ladakh region of the state, registered the low of minus 4.4 degrees Celsius, the official said.