Widespread snowfall in north; avalanche claims 2 lives in J-K

Northern India was fully in the grip of cold weather conditions today with widespread snowfall in the hilly areas even as the winter claimed its first casualties in Jammu and Kashmir where two teenaged girls lost their lives after being trapped beneath an avalanche.
Delhi woke up for a second day to cloudy skies and hazy weather with chilly winds bringing down the mercury in the national capital.
The maximum temperature dropped four notches below normal to 17.4 degrees Celsius, but the minimum was recorded four notches above normal at 12.0 degrees. The city reported high humidity levels of between 98 and 88 per cent.

The weatherman has predicted clear skies tomorrow although fog is expected in the morning.
Further north, in J-K, two teenaged girls were killed today after being buried alive under a mound of snow when an avalanche struck in the Gurez area in north Kashmir's Bandipora district, police said.
A massive search operation was undertaken to recover the bodies of Shafeeqa Bano (18) and Dilshada Bano (16), who met with the mishap when thay had gone to fetch water from Kishenganga river.

The area was one of the several parts of Kashmir that received snowfall in the past 24 hours.
Srinagar recorded 1.8cm of snowfall while the minimum in the city increased last night from -3.9 degrees Celsius to settle at a low of 0.3 degrees.

Qazigund received 13cm snow while the Pahalgam hill resort received 17cm snow and recorded a low of -2.4 degrees, a rise of over two degrees from the previous night's -5.6 degrees.
The ski resort of Gulmarg received 15cm snowfall.
The minimum also increased in Leh as the mercury touched -6.2 degrees, as against -12.4 degrees yesterday.
The forecast is for light rain or snowfall at a few places in the state with a decrease in precipitation over the coming two days.
In Himachal Pradesh, the tourist resorts of Shimla, Manali and Chail got the first snowfall of the season while the lower reaches were drenched by widespread heavy rain.