| Weather improves after 36 hours of incessant rains, snow in Kashmir | | |
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Apr 23: There was major respite from chilly weather conditions on Friday as bright sunshine greeted people though ice cold winds continued in the summer capital, Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir valley, which received incessant rain in plains and snowfall in upper reaches during the last about 36 hours.
However, the night temperature dipped and settled several degrees below normal across the valley, where the weather is expected to remain dry till May 3.
A Met department spokesperson that light rain and thundershowers could occur at isolated places during the next 24 hours in Kashmir valley. “The weather will turn dry and warmer from Saturday onwards,” he said.
He said the weather during the day is expected to remained pleasant till May 3, though the mercury during night could settled below normal due to open skies.
After witnessing a dip of about 4 degree in the night temperature, people in the summer capital, Srinagar, woke up to a chilly Friday morning. However, as the day progressed the sun came out from behind the clouds, resulting in major improvement in the day temperature though ice cold winds continued. Against 8.6 degree recorded on Thursday, the night temperature dipped and settled at 4.6 degree, which is over 4 degree below normal. Vehicular and pedestrian movement remained badly affected with the majority of the roads waterlogged due to incessant rains during the last 36 hours.
However, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) on Friday claimed to have deployed mobile dewatering pumps to clear the waterlogged roads and lanes in the city. “If there is water logging issue in your area, please reply in this thread with location and a photograph. Our drainage team will try to resolve it at the earliest,” SMC wrote on its official twitter handle.
In reply to the tweet, people posted pictures of their localities with waterlogged roads and sought SMC help in dewatering these areas. The SMC also posted many pictures and videos of different localities, where dewatering pumps were deployed.
Much to the delight of tourists, bright sunshine greeted the world famous ski resort of Gulmarg, though weather remained chilly due to ice cold winds from snow-clad mountains. The ski resort, where the upper reaches are still covered under several feet of snow, was the only place in the valley where the mercury settled below freezing point.
Against minus 0.5 degree recorded on Thursday, the night temperature at Gulmarg, about 55 km from here in north Kashmir, settled at minus 2 degree, which is over 5 degree below normal.
“Tourists were enjoying different snow related activities on a sunny day in Gulmarg. But, the arrival of tourists has witnessed a steep decline after witnessing huge influx of visitors in the ski resort earlier this year. Many bookings for later this month have been cancelled due to rise in COVID-19 cases,” a hotelier said over the phone.
The mercury during the night at world famous health resort of Pahalgam, about 100 km from here in south Kashmir, dipped over 2 degree from Thursday and settled at 0.8 degree, which is over 3 degree below normal. There was major improvement in the weather conditions during the day in the health resort due to sunshine.
The night temperature at Qazigund, gateway to the valley, Kupwara in north Kashmir and tourist resort of Kokernag dipped and settled at 3.6 degrees, 3.7 degrees and 1.8 degrees, respectively. |
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