Srinagar-Jammu highway closed for four hours, wet spell likely to continue in J&K

The Jammu-Srinagar National highway was closed for nearly four hours on Friday owing to a stone slide in Ramban while intermittent rains lashed parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Officials said that the 270-km highway (NH-44) was closed at around 3.25 pm when stones slid down the mountains at Khooni Nallah, but was re-opened at around 7 pm after the road was cleared. and the traffic was resumed.
“NH-44 blocked due to stone slides at Khooni Nallah. People are advised to avoid the journey on the highway till the road is clear,” the traffic police had said in an update on ‘X’.
The meteorological centre in Srinagar said that there was intermittent rains in many areas of the union territory, particularly on Thursday evening in the Jammu division and also on Friday afternoon in parts of Kashmir valley.
The MeT had predicted light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning at many places accompanied by hailstorms and gusty winds at some places of Shopian, Kulgam, Uri, Baramulla and hilly regions of Jammu on Friday afternoon.
“It has been raining lightly in the ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir since 2 pm,” said Manzoor Ahmad, a cab driver ferrying a group of tourists in Gulmarg, at 6.30 pm.
Meanwhile, the MeT has predicted that the coming week will witness intermittent, on and off, rains owing to two western disturbances(WD) or moisture-laden winds from the Mediterranean.
Director MeT, Mukhtar Ahmad had said Friday night would again witness light to moderate rain or light snow over a few higher reaches with thunder, hailstorms and gusty winds at a few places.
Ahmad said that April 13 and 14 will witness more rains owing to the WD. “The weather in the coming two days will be generally cloudy with light to moderate rain (snow over higher reaches) at many places with heavy rain, thunder, lightning, hailstorm and gusty winds at isolated places,” he said.
April 15, 16, 17 and 18 will witness some light rain and snow over higher reaches at a few places.
Another feeble WD will hit the region on April 19 and 20 which will bring partly cloudy weather with light rain/snow at many places.
He advised farmers to suspend farm operations till April 15 in the first instance. “There is a possibility of temporary disruption of surface transportation over a few higher reaches during April 13 and 14. There can also be temporary water logging in a few low-lying areas while the possibility of landslides/mudslides and shooting stones can’t be ruled out,” he said.