MIRPUR (AJK): Jan 11 (APP):With the much-awaited rains in the plains and snowfall in the upper reaches, the dry spell that persisted in Azad Jammu and Kashmir for over a couple of months ended in the wee hours on Wednesday.
Mercury fell down to a greater extent turning weather chilled in the Neelam and Leepa valleys of AJK, which received the heaviest snowfall since late Tuesday.
The inclement weather led to a dip in the day’s temperature. However, the night temperature improved to intolerable chillness in the top mountainous terrain of the liberated territory.
The long dryness persistent for the past month caused seasonal diseases including allergy, flu, cough, and fever in various parts of AJK besides reducing the water level in rivers and dams to an alarming level.
Various parts of AJK received the first heaviest rainfall of the winter in the plains besides the snowfall at the upper reaches of the state mid-last night of Monday and Tuesday. Various parts of AJK, including Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Neelam and Leepa valleys, Kotli, Bhimbher, and Rawalakot besides some adjoining areas of the state lashed with heavy downpour of the season coupled with mild thunderstorms, turning the weather more chilly and forcing the people to put on heavy clothing.
In the snow-clad top mountainous Neelam and Leepa valleys, the locals were compelled to be confined to their houses to avert the negative impacts of the harshness of the suddenly changed chilly weather, a local journalist told APP over the telephone on Wednesday.
In Mirpur, the rains, with a storm of mild intensity, started in the mid-last night and continued intermittently till the filing of this report Wednesday night.
The metrological department has predicted the continuation of the rainfall in plains and snowfall at the top mountainous parts of the AJK during the next 24 hours. The entire region was passing through dry weather for about the last two months.
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