Snowfall in Kashmir: Jammu-Srinagar highway closed; flights cancelled at Srinagar airport

Snowfall in Kashmir: Kashmir was cut off from the outside world as all flights to and fro Srinagar airport were cancelled due to heavy snowfall on Monday morning and the national highway also was shut, officials said.

Heavy snowfall started across the Valley and rain lashed Jammu division as the MeT office said that adverse weather would continue during the next 12 hours. "Moderate to heavy snowfall occurred in the Valley and rain lashed Jammu division since early hours of Monday morning.

"Adverse weather is likely to continue during the next 12 hours," an official of the Meteorological (MeT) department said, adding that improvement would occur from Monday evening. Five inches of snow accumulated in Srinagar city till Monday morning while Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Sonamarg and other higher reaches received over 1-3 ft of fresh snowfall.

Jammu-Srinagar highway has been closed due to shooting stones and mudslides at a number of places in Ramban-Banihal stretch of the road. Poor visibility affected flight operations at Srinagar International airport. Due to falling snow and poor visibility no flight could land or take off from the airport during the morning hours.

Srinagar had minus 0.2, Pahalgam minus 1.4 and Gulmarg minus 4.6 degrees Celsius as the minimum temperature. In Ladakh region, Kargil had minus 6.8 and Leh minus 0.6 as the minimum temperature.
Jammu had 10.4, Katra 9, Batote 1.2, Banihal 0.2 and Bhaderwah minus 0.6 as the minimum temperature.