Northlines Correspondent
Jammu Tawi, Jan 06: Incessant rains pushed life out of gear during the last three days in Jammu with the city on Wednesday recording 50.1 mm rainfall in a 24-hour period, its second-highest for the month of January in 20 years, Meteorological department officials said here.
The showers, however, stopped on Wednesday morning, bringing some relief to residents.
“Jammu recorded 50.1 mm of rainfall during the past 24 hours. This was the second-highest in the past two decades as the city had recorded the all-time high of 81.4 mm rainfall on January 13, 2000,” a spokesperson of the department said.
He said the city had recorded 47.7 mm rainfall on January 26, 2017. Triggered by heavy rainfall, the river Tawi went into spate, but it was flowing below the danger level.
The spokesperson said the minimum temperature in the city settled at 12.1 degrees Celsius, which is 4.7 notches above normal for this part of the season. Katra recorded 9.2 Celsius as the day’s lowest temperatures, Batote 3.2, Banihal 0.2 and Bhadarwah 2.2 celsius.
Banihal town along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway was recorded as the coldest place in the Jammu region at a low of 0.2 degree Celsius. The highway town witnessed 80.4 mm of rain and snow during a 24-hour period ending at 8.30 am, the spokesperson said.
Katra, the base camp for the pilgrims visiting the Vaishno Devi Shrine in Reasi district, recorded 47.9 mm rainfall and a minimum temperature of 9.2 degrees Celsius, he said.
“Weather improving gradually, significant improvement expected from today (Wednesday) afternoon onwards but light rain or snow will occur at scattered places in the next 24 hours,” the official said, adding that there is no forecast of any major snowfall, and the weather is likely to remain mainly dry in Jammu and Kashmir till January 14.
Reports from Srinagar:
Intermittent heavy snowfall during the last 48 hours threw life out of gear in Kashmir on Wednesday as the meteorological (MeT) department forecast improvement in weather from afternoon.
Over two ft snow accumulated on the ground in the plains of the valley while the higher reaches in Jammu and Kashmir received nearly four ft of snow during the last 48 hours.
Srinagar-Jammu highway remained closed on Wednesday for the fourth consecutive day while no flight operation took place from Srinagar airport for the second day.
Authorities are battling to restore traffic on the main roads in the valley while most of the rural areas remained cut off.
Hardships for the locals are compounded by the failure of the electric supply in the rural areas while the same remained erratic in semi-urban and urban areas.
“There would be improvement in weather conditions from today afternoon and during the next few days, weather is likely to remain mainly dry.
“This will help increase the day temperatures, but night temperatures would drop significantly during this period”, an official of the MeT department said.
The ongoing 40-day long period of harsh winter cold known locally as the ‘Chillai Kalan’ will end on January 31.
Srinagar recorded minus 0.9, Pahalgam minus 1.2 and Gulmarg minus 3.5 as the minimum temperatures on Wednesday.
The minimum temperature recorded in Kargil was minus 11.6, and Drass had minus 8.6 as the night’s lowest temperature.
