Rains, fresh snowfall throw life out of gear in J-K, Himachal

Normal life was disrupted in several districts of Jammu-Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh today as parts of the two states received heavy snowfall though the country's northern plain witnessed slight increase in minimum temperatures giving some respite to people.
In the national capital, though the minimum temperature settled at 8.9 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season's average, cold breeze troubled the people.
The maximum temperature settled at 19.1 degrees Celsius, a notch below average. Due to shallow fog in the morning, rail traffic was affected and 28 trains were running late by hours, while 10 were rescheduled, said a Railways official.

In Himachal Pradesh, entire tribal belt of Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur, Pangi and Bharmaur and upper areas of Shimla, Kullu and Sirmaur were cut off from rest of the state as mid and higher hills received second heavy snowfall of the season and the lower hills widespread rains.
Vehicular traffic to upper Shimla region was suspended in the morning and efforts are on to open the Hindustan-Tibet highway upto Theog while the Rohroo and Chopal roads are closed due to heavy snow at Kharapatthar and Nerwa.
The mercury in the state capital dropped below the freezing point as a white blanket of snow covered it and surrounding areas of Kufri and Narkanda.

Bharmaur and Manali recorded 55 cm and54 cm of snowfall, followed by Rohtang and Churdhar 50 cm, Kothi 45 cm.

Normal life was disrupted in Kashmir due to fresh snowfall which led to the closure of Srinagar-Jammu National Highway and cancellation of five planes.
A MeT Department official in the state said the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir received around two feet of fresh snowfall during the night.
"Srinagar-Jammu National Highway has been closed for traffic due to bad weather," an official told PTI.
He said there was around two feet snowfall near Jawahar Tunnel and other areas along the highway- the only all-weather road-link connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country - so the authorities decided to suspend the traffic.

The air traffic to and fro Srinagar International Airport was also affected due to the snowfall and five flights were cancelled.
The summer capital recorded about three inches of snowfall during the night and it registered the minimum temperature of minus 0.9 degree Celsius, against the previous night's minus 2.3 degrees Celsius.
The MET Office has forecast widespread snowfall or rains over two days from today and fairly isolated to scattered rains or snowfall for two days after that.