Fresh snowfall in Kashmir breaks cold spell

Many parts of Kashmir received fresh snowfall on Tuesday, leading to an increase in the minimum temperature, which brought some relief to the people from the intense cold wave.

The Meteorological Department has forecast more snow till Wednesday.

"The wet spell is for two days and the weather will improve from Wednesday afternoon," Sonam Lotus, Director Met, Kashmir told IANS.

He said after this snowfall the weather conditions will remain dry till mid February and the temperature will show a steady rise here.

The night temperature in Srinagar was 0.6 degrees celsius, and it was minus three in Pahalgam and minus eight in Gulmarg.

The rains and the intermittent snow have also made the Jammu - Srinagar highway slippery at many places. However, there is a one-way traffic on Tuesday from Jammu to Srinagar. Those vehicles which started from Jammu in the morning were allowed to ply onwards, but no new vehicles were now being allowed to go.

The 40-day long harsh winter "chilaikalan" ends on Friday and the weather conditions are likely to improve after that.IANS