Woollens out as Valley gets season’s first snowfall

As the Kashmir valley’s upper reaches on Sunday received the first snowfall of the season and rain lashed the plains, the day temperatures plummeted several degrees forcing people to take out woollens.

“There has been snow in the upper reaches of the valley. There are reports of snow from Gulmarg, Gurez and some areas along the Line of Control (LoC),” Director, Meteorological department, Sonum Lotus told The Indian Express.

As the snow lashed the upper reaches of the valley, the plains received rain — intermittently since Saturday evening. According to Met officials in the valley, Srinagar city received 13.0 mm rainfall during the past 24 hours while 10.2 mm rainfall was received in the south Kashmir health resort of Pahalgam. Moderate to heavy rain also lashed most of the parts of north Kashmir including Sopore, Baramulla, Kupwara, Handwara and Bandipore.

In the north Kashmir tourist resort of Gulmarg whose higher reaches received first snowfall of the season on Saturday night, the night temperatures have plunged below zero degree Celsius. The tourist resort received 18.8 mm rainfall during the past 24 hours and the minimum temperature was recorded at minus one degree Celsius.

As the result of the snow and rain, the temperatures in the plains of the valley have come down suddenly by more than six degrees. This year, the autumn in the valley was unusually warm. “This year, the temperatures are one or two degrees less than the normal temperatures recorded in October,” Lotus said.