Srinagar: Kashmir Valley received fresh snowfall Thursday which brought some relief in the biting chill of the night, although in the frontier region of Ladakh, Leh shivered as the mercury plunged by five degrees.
The national highway was declared closed on precaution yesterday, but a Traffic Control Room spokesperson told PTI that some vehicles were permitted to ply on the road.
According to the MeT office, minimum temperature in Srinagar, which recorded 6 mm snowfall, rose to 0.8 degrees Celsius from the previous night`s 0.1 degrees.
Night temperatures increased in the hill resort of Pahalgam in south Kashmir with the minimum there settling at 1.4 degree Celsius after a jump of about 4 degrees from yesterday`s -3.8 degree Celsius.
The ski resort of Gulmarg in north shivered at -5.6 deg C, which was an increase of about a degree from -6.7 deg C yesterday. Pahalgam received 5.4 mm snowfall, while in Gulmarg it measured 4.8 mm.
Qazigund in south Kashmir received 6.2 mm snowfall and recorded a low of 1.8 degree Celsius, which was two notches above -1 degree Celsius the night before.
The minimum night temperature in Kokernag was 0.3 degree Celsius, up from -1.7 degrees the previous night while Kupwara in north Kashmir saw the minimum settle at 0.3 degrees after rising from -0.9 degrees yesterday.
The weather department said that it snowed at both places with Kokernag having received 1.8 mm of snowfall as against Kupwara`s 12.1 mm.
In Leh, however, the night temperature plunged by a steep five degrees to settle at -15 degrees, making it the coldest place in the state.
The weather office said that Kargil, also in Ladakh, saw a two-degree jump from -12 degrees to -10 degrees.
Moderate to heavy snowfall, which was forecast for the region, is tipped to intensify on January 17 and 18 and likely continue till January 19.
The 294-km Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the only road linking Kashmir with rest of the country, was open to vehicles going from Jammu to Srinagar which had crossed Nagrota in Jammu region by 8 AM.
PTI
