Snowfall and heavy rain across Jammu and Kashmir ended a month-long dry spell in the state on Monday, PTI reported.

On Sunday, the weather department forecast heavy snowfall and rain, caused by an active western disturbance, between December 11 and December 15. A western disturbance is a storm that starts in the Mediterranean region and brings winter rain to northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent.

People walk in a local park in Pahalgam. (Photo credit: Muneeb Ul Islam)

Kupwara, Bandipora, Baramulla, Anantnag, Shopian, Pulwama and the Kulgam districts in Kashmir received snowfall on Monday. In south Kashmir’s Shopian district, three inches of snow was recorded at Herpora.

Residents protect themselves from the snow. (Photo credit: Muneeb Ul Islam)
A snow-covered park in Pahalgam, where temperatures fell to minus 4 degrees Celsius on Monday. (Photo credit: Muneeb Ul Islam)
The higher regions of the state received heavy snowfall on Monday. (Photo credit: Muneeb Ul Islam)
Children walk back from school in a Kashmiri village. (Photo credit: Muneeb Ul Islam)

The Mughal road that connects Kashmir with the Chenab Valley has been shut. The Srinagar-Leh highway, connecting the frontier Ladakh region with the rest of the state, was closed on Sunday, PTI reported.

Following the weather department’s warning, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti asked the Srinagar Municipal Corporation and urban local bodies to ensure interior roads and lanes in the city and major towns of the Valley are cleared of snow quickly.