AJK receives winter's first rains, snowfall in upper region

With the much-awaited rains in plains and snow on upper reaches, the dry spell that persisted in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) for over the last three months ended in the wee hours of Sunday.

Mercury fell to a greater extent turning weather chilled in top mountainous scenic Neelam and Leepa valleys of AJK that received the first snowfall on Sunday, reports said. The cold weather led to a dip in the day temperature. However, the night temperature improved to intolerable cold in the mountainous terrain of AJK.

The persistent long dryness for the past about three months caused seasonal diseases such as allergy, flu and fever in various parts of AJK besides reducing the water level in rivers and dams to an alarming extent because of the lack of rains in the Kashmir region as well.

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Various parts of AJK received first rainfall of moderate level of the just starting winter in the plains included Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Neelam and Leepa valleys, Kotli, Bhimbher, Rawalakot besides some adjoining areas of the state lashed with the inaugural downpour of the season coupled with a mild thunderstorm on Sunday, turning the weather more chilly and forcing the people to adopt warm clothing.

In the snow-clad mountainous Neelam and Leepa valleys, the locals were compelled to be confined into their houses to avert negative impacts of the harshness of the sudden change in weather on the normal life, a local journalist told APP over the telephone.

In Mirpur, the rains with wind storm of mild intensity started a night ago and continued intermittently till Sunday afternoon. The meteorological department has predicted the continuation of rainfall in plains and snowfall at the upper parts of the region during the next 24 hours. The entire region was had been passing through dry weather for the last three months.