Kathmandu, Feb. 7 -- Heavy snowfall from Thursday to Saturday over Nepal has blanketed high villages in up to 0.5m of snow, obstructing road and air traffic, ending a prolonged drought and putting out devastating wildfires.

The snow and rain affected most parts of Nepal, ending a four-month drought and making farmers on rain-fed terraces hopeful about their winter crops.

Snowfall was heaviest in the trans-Himalayan districts of Humla, Mugu, Jumla, Dolpo, Mustang, Manang and Upper Gorkha. Some of these valleys had snowfall for three days, and the minimum temperature in Manang Valley fell to -10 Celsius on Saturday.

The heavy snow put out wildfires that had been raging in Manang's Tachai area for the past two weeks. An earlier fire near ...