Srinagar, Dec 29 Heavy snowfall and rain disrupted life across Kashmir as the Meteorological (MeT) department forecasted cold, dry weather during the next 72 hours in J&K.
Mukhtar Ahmad, Director of the local MeT department told IANS, “Two Western disturbances (WDs) are expected to affect the weather system on January 1st and January 3. The first WD is likely to be weak, but the second WD is expected to be of moderate intensity that will cause snow in the Valley and rain/snow in the Jammu division.”
The WD is the name given to an extratropical storm in the Mediterranean Sea that causes snowfall and rain in India, Pakistan and Nepal.
The prospects of the Rabi crop depend largely on the activity of the WDs in these countries as good snow and rainfall mean bumper crop.
Minimum temperatures have appreciably improved in Srinagar after the recent snowfall.
Srinagar recorded minus 0.2, Gulmarg minus 8.5 and Pahalgam minus 8 as the minimum temperature on Sunday.
Jammu city had 6.1, Katra town 5, Batote minus 2, Banihal 0.8 and Bhaderwah minus 5 as the night’s lowest temperature.
Roads and highways remained highly slippery due to frozen layers of snow left behind after clearance machines cleared most of the fallen snow on Saturday.
A sheet of frozen snow on all the roads and highways prevented traffic movement on Sunday morning as people preferred to remain indoors to protect themselves.
One common ailment during winter months has been fractured limbs caused by slippery pedestrian malls, etc., in the Valley. This results in a heavy patient load at the various hospitals with the serious ones reporting at the Valley’s only specialised bone and joint hospital located in the Barzalla area of Srinagar city.
Doctors at the cardiology department of Srinagar Medical College have issued an advisory to the general public cautioning them against heart attacks and heart failures caused by exposure to cold conditions.
People of high-risk age groups have been asked clearly not to expose themselves to extremes of cold as this coupled with chest infections has been proven by research to cause deaths due to heart failure during winter months.
This probably is what the great dramatist William Shakespeare meant by referring to those who survive the ‘Ides of March’. After March, the weather improves in England and old people surviving the brunt of winter are said to have survived the misfortunes of winter called the ‘ides of March’.
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