Rain, snow break winter dry spell in region
TNS/IANS
Chandigarh, December 11
Light showers broke the dry winter spell in Chandigarh and surrounding areas of Punjab and Haryana on Friday.
The rainfall started in Chandigarh early on Friday, giving people a feel of the winter. The skies remained overcast later in the day also.
Adjoining towns of Panchkula in Haryana and Mohali in Punjab also experienced some rain.
Elsewhere in Punjab and Haryana, overcast and misty conditions prevailed on Friday.
At some places like Hisar in Haryana, fog reduced visibility to about 150 metres. In Ludhiana, the visibility was 350 metres.
The local Met office has predicted light showers in Panchkula and Ambala districts in Haryana and Mohali and Ropar districts in Punjab.
In the past 24 hours, the maximum and minimum temperatures were around 25 and 11 degrees at most places in the region.
Snowfall in Kashmir
Plains in Kashmir Valley received season's first snowfall on Friday, with the ski resort of Gulmarg recording 22 inches of fresh snowfall.
"Plains of the valley, including Srinagar, recorded season's first snowfall on Friday," an official at Met department told IANS.
"Gulmarg recorded 44.4 mm (22 inches) of fresh snowfall." The minimum temperature in Srinagar was recorded at 0.3 degrees Celsius. It was 0.4 in Pahalgam, minus 7.0 in Gulmarg, minus 1.3 in Leh, and 2.4 in Kargil town on Friday.
The minimum temperature in Jammu city was recorded at 11.6 degrees Celsius, in Katra it was 9.0, in Batote 3.6, in Bannihal the temperature was 1.5, and in Bhaderwah 3.6 degrees Celsius.
According to the official, more rain and snow is expected in Jammu and Kashmir till Saturday and then the weather will begin to improve.
Meanwhile, it has been raining since yesterday in Himachal Pradesh, while the upper higher reaches of the state has experienced snowfall bringing down the temperature.
