Air, road traffic hit in J&K
New Delhi: Parts of north India witnessed snowfall or rain on Wednesday affecting air and road traffic in Jammu and Kashmir, while the national capital woke up to the pitter-patter of hailstones as the city's spell of wet weather entered its fourth day.
The India Meteorological Department, however, said dry weather is expected over entire Northwest India from Thursday, but dense to very dense fog is very likely in many pockets of the region due to favourable weather conditions.
While Jammu and Kashmir received rain and snow, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Lakshadweep, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi witnessed rain or thundershower at most places during the 24 hours ending at 8.30 am Wednesday.
"We had 28 arriving flights and 28 outgoing flights and all of them were cancelled," said a Srinagar airport official, citing snowfall and poor
visibility.
An official of the traffic control room in Jammu said, "No traffic was allowed on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway due to accumulation of snow and landslides at many places."
South Kashmir's Kulgam district received highest snowfall with five to six feet of snow accumulated at some places. Anantnag district has also received heavy snowfall. This also led to power supply disruptions in many areas across the valley. Incessant downpour has thrown life out of gear for the last three days in Jammu with the city reporting 50.1 mm rainfall in a 24-hour period ending Wednesday morning, its second-highest for the month of January in 20 years, Meteorological department officials said.
Meanwhile, moderate rains and thundershowers were observed over isolated places in western Uttar Pradesh while very light rains and thundershowers occurred at some places in the state's eastern parts on Wednesday, the Met department said.
State capital Lucknow recorded a minimum temperature of 12.7 degrees Celsius, while Allahabad recorded 14.6 degrees Celsius. The lowest minimum temperature in the state was 6.2 degrees Celsius, recorded in Etawah
and Banda.
Night temperatures were above normal across most of Rajasthan, barring Mount Abu, the state's only hill station, where the mercury dipped to minus 3.4 degrees Celsius, weather department officials said in Jaipur. In the plains, Jaisalmer was recorded the coldest at a minimum of 7.4 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, eight people were rescued after their vehicles got trapped in a mudslide near Panthiyal along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, officials said on Wednesday.
The 270-km highway was closed for traffic on Sunday following heavy snowfall and incessant rains which triggered multiple landslides and shooting of stones from
the hillocks.
Further more, incessant downpour threw 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.