Srinagar: Snow covered houses in a locality during light snowfall in Srinagar on Saturday, January 8, 2022.
Officials said all scheduled flights were canceled on Saturday due to heavy snowfall, reducing visibility at the airport here, cutting off air connectivity between Kashmir and the rest of the country. The snowfall, which started on Friday afternoon, continued throughout the day at most places in the Kashmir Valley, he said.
“All 40 flights operating at Srinagar airport had to be canceled due to snowfall,” an Airport Authority of India (AAI) official said. He said the snowfall has reduced visibility at the airport to less than 600 metres.
The official said the problems related to low visibility would be resolved soon as an Advanced Instrument Landing System (ILS) would be installed at the airport by November this year. “The installation of CAT-II ILS will start in April 2022 and will be completed by November 2022. Hopefully we will not face these difficulties next year,” he said.
The official advised passengers to reschedule their flights, which, he said, would be done free of cost by the airlines. “If the passengers decide to cancel their journey, they are entitled to a full refund,” he added.
Air traffic to and from Kashmir has been severely affected in the past few days with a large number of flights or flights canceled due to low visibility. Officials said the minimum temperature in Srinagar was recorded at 0.2 degrees Celsius last night.
He said the famous skiing resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded a minimum temperature of minus 4.6 degrees Celsius, while Pahalgam, which serves as the base camp for the annual Amarnath Yatra, recorded a low of minus 0.2 degrees Celsius. was done.
Officials said the minimum temperature in Qazigund, the gateway town to the valley, was minus 0.9 degrees Celsius, while Kokernag in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 0.9 degrees Celsius. The mercury in Kupwara in North Kashmir was recorded at zero degree Celsius.
The Meteorological Department has said that the weather is likely to improve significantly from Sunday morning, after which the weather is likely to remain dry for the next few days.
The Kashmir Valley is currently in the grip of the harshest winter period of 40 days, known as ‘Chilla-e-Kalan’, which began on December 21.
‘Chilla-e-Kalan’ is a time when a cold wave hits the region and the temperature drops drastically, freezing the famous Dal Lake here and water supply lines in many parts of the valley. Huh.
The chances of snowfall are highest and maximum during this period and heavy to very heavy snowfall occurs in most of the regions, especially in the high altitude areas.
‘Chilla-e-Kalan’ will end on January 31, but even after that, 20 days long ‘Chillai-Khurd’ (little cold) and 10 days long ‘Chillai-Bachha’ (baby cold) in Kashmir.
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