Snowfall in J&K, Himahcal, good sign for Delhi’s air before Diwali

Four days ahead of Diwali, and the entire northern region sees a sudden drop in temperature! All thanks to snowfall and rains in parts of J&K, Himahcal and Uttarakhand — coming as a boon for the toxin-laden air of Delhi-NCR.

The weather conditions which led to the snowfall and rains — western disturbance — have however moved east and are set to leave a positive impact over Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, with a drop in low moisture winds and temperature. This, experts believe, will provide a much-needed breather to Delhi-NCR which will see an improvement in air quality — for a day.

The western disturbance has however passed and hilly states will not see snowfall from Sunday onwards.

The mercury dipped across norhtern plains and mountain states on Saturday, with parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and upper reaches of Uttarkhand seeing snowfall and rains.

Across the national Capital and regions around it, there were light rain showers, forcing the maximum temperatures to drop by a degree. The morning temperatures of Sunday is expected to see a two-degree drop.

The summer capital of J&K, Srinagar, on Saturday also saw season’s first snowfall — it was heavy at Sonamarg, Gulmarg and Pahalgam, both sides of the Jawahar Tunnel on the Jammu-Kashmir National Highway and in the Pir Panjal range. The minimum temperature of Gulmarg was -3.0 degree Celsius while that of Srinagar was 1.8 degrees. The maximum temperature in Gulmarg was one degrees, while in Srinagar it was 6.3 degree.

“The western disturbance is passing and the region will now see cold, but dry north-westerly winds, with a bit higher speed, which will bring down the temperatures across northern plains. Snowfall is not expected in mountain regions of Himachal and parts of Uttarakhand,” India Meteorological Department (IMD) scientist M Mohapatra told IANS.

The IMD has, however, forecast a possibility of snowfall in parts of J&K towards Sunday as well.