Srinagar, Dec 12 (IANS): The season's first snowfall lashed the plains of the Kashmir Valley on Saturday while the higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir received heavy snowfall, the Met Office said.

"As expected, light to moderate snowfall occurred in plains of the Valley during the night while heavy snowfall occurred in the higher reaches of J&K and Ladakh," an official of the Met department said.

"There would be improvement in the overall weather condition from today onwards. No major snowfall is expected till December 20 during which the weather is expected to remain mainly dry," the official added.

Srinagar received 3 inches of snow on Saturday while Gulmarg received over a foot of fresh snowfall.

All major highways including the Srinagar-Jammu, Srinagar-Leh and the Mughal Road are closed for traffic on Saturday.

There was fresh snowfall of nearly a foot in the Bannihal sector of Srinagar-Jammu highway.

The minimum temperature was minus 0.6 degree Celsius in Srinagar, minus 0.9 in Pahalgam and minus 4 in Gulmarg on Saturday.

Leh town of Ladakh recorded minus 6.1, Kargil minus 3 and Drass minus 6.3 as the minimum temperature on Saturday.

Jammu city had 10.3, Katra 8.6, Batote minus 0.7, Bannihal 0.2 and Bhaderwah minus 0.4 as the night's lowest temperatures.