Jammu-Srinagar National Highway has been closed due to snowfall at Jawahar Tunnel area, while higher reaches of Pirpanjal mountain range received heavy snowfall, resulting in the closure of Mughal road, said officials. After snowfall affected the movement of vehicles, snow was being cleared from the Mughal Road to clear the way.
The maximum temperature in Jammu was marked at 22 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature was at 13 degrees Celsius on Monday, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Also, Himachal Pradesh’s tourist resort Manali and Shimla’s nearby destinations Kufri and Narkanda were on Monday enveloped by a blanket of snow, the season’s first.
Icy winds accompanied by overnight rain brought down the minimum temperature in Shimla. This was the season’s first snow that froze Manali, Kufri, Narkanda, Kala Top and Kharapathar.
An official of the meteorological office said, “High-altitude areas of Lahaul and Spiti, Chamba, Mandi, Kullu and Kinnaur districts have been experiencing snow since Sunday. As news of the snowfall flashes across the plains, tourists will start arriving at Manali and the nearby hills — and in Kufri, just 15 km uphill from Shimla, and Narkanda,”
The mountain peaks viewed from Shimla and the Dhauladhar peaks overlooking the Tibetan Buddhist leader Dalai Lama’s official palace in McLeodganj near Dharamsala were also covered in snow. The other hill destinations of Dharamsala, Nahan, Chamba, Dalhousie and Mandi got rains.
