Srinagar, April 28 (IANS): It was a cloudy morning on Tuesday in Srinagar and the state. But despite the inclement weather, the Jammu-Srinagar highway remained open for one-way traffic on Tuesday.

The local meteorological office said that weather would improve from Tuesday onwards.

"Weather will remain mainly dry during the next 24 hours. However, there may be light rain with thundershowers at isolated places in the state. The maximum temperature on Tuesday will hover around 19 degrees Celsius," an official of the weather office told IANS here.

"We are expecting a decrease in precipitation from Tuesday evening. But another spell of rain accompanied with thundershower is likely from Thursday morning till Friday evening," the official added.

The minimum overnight temperature on Tuesday at Pahalgam was 3.6 degrees and Gulmarg remained colder with mercury reading at the freezing point.

Kargil and Leh towns of the Ladakh region recorded the temperatures at 3.6 and 2.1 degrees Celsius respectively.

In Jammu city, the maximum and minimum temperature will hover around 30 and 18 degrees Celsius, the weather office said.

Meanwhile, the Srinagar-Jammu highway continued to function despite rain which lashed the Kashmir Valley on Monday. The national highway runs through extremely treacherous mountainous terrain and often remains closed due to landslides along the road, triggered by rain or snowfall.

"We had kept men and machinery on standby to meet any eventuality yesterday (Monday)," an official of traffic police department said.

"Today (Tuesday) vehicles from Jammu to Srinagar will ply on the highway and no vehicle from opposite side will be allowed," he said.