MIRPUR, DEC 21 (APP/DNA): With the much-awaited rains in the plains and upper reaches, the dry spell that persisted in Azad Jammu and Kashmir for over the last three months ended between the middle of last night, Saturday, and Sunday.
Mercury fell down to a greater extent, turning the weather chilled in the top upper reaches of the scenic Neelam and Leepa valleys of AJK, which received the first snowfall since late Saturday, APP AJK Correspondent reports from Mirpur on Sunday.
The inclement weather led to a dip in the day temperature. However, the night temperature improved to intolerable chillness in the top mountainous terrain of the liberated territory.
The persistent long dryness for the past over three months caused seasonal diseases, including allergies, 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 rain in the region as well.
Various parts of Azad Jammu & Kashmir received the first rainfall of the winter in the plains, besides snowfall at the upper reaches of the state, late last night, Saturday, and Friday in various parts of AJK, including the Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Neelam, and Leepa valleys; Kotli; Bhimbher; and Rawalakot, besides some adjoining areas of the state lashed with the opening light downpour of the season coupled with a mild thunderstorm late last night, turning the weather more chilly and forcing the people to go into the heavy clothing.
In the fully chilled top mountainous Neelam and Leepa valleys, the locals were compelled to be confined to their houses to avert negative impacts of the harshness of the suddenly changed chilly weather on normal life, a local journalist, Khawaja Shahid Ahmed, told this APP AJK correspondent from the top mountainous Neelam valley over the telephone on Sunday.
In Mirpur, light rains started in the middle of last night and continued intermittently on Sunday.
The meteorological department has, meanwhile, predicted continuation of the rainfall in the plains and snowfall at the top mountainous parts of the AJK during the next 72 hours. The entire region has been passing through the dry weather since about the last 03 months.
