Kashmir continues to reel under severe cold conditions

Srinagar, Jan 10: The Kashmir Valley continues to reel under severe cold, with night temperatures remaining several degrees below freezing despite a slight improvement on Friday, officials said.

The day temperature in Srinagar on Thursday reached 2.4°C above the seasonal average of 6.6°C. Similarly, other weather stations across the valley reported above-normal daytime temperatures.

However, the improvement in daytime warmth did little to alleviate the biting cold at night.

Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, recorded a minimum temperature of -4.3°C during the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. While this marked a slight increase of one degree, it was still 2.4°C below the seasonal average for this time of year, the Meteorological Department said.

The Met Office predicts the weather will generally remain dry till January 15, except for a chance of light rain over the plains of Jammu and snow at isolated to scattered places during January 11 and 12 in Jammu and Kashmir. The cold wave will continue in isolated places of Jammu and Kashmir, it said.

Pahalgam remained the coldest place in the Kashmir Valley in spite of improvement in minimum temperature recorded at -10.0°C against the -10.4°C recorded the previous night. This was 3.8°C below normal for the tourist spot of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district during the period.

The ski resort of Gulmarg had a low of -8.1°C against the -9.6°C on Thursday, and this was 0.3°C below normal for the tourist resort of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district for the day.

The minimum temperature at picturesque Sonamarg also improved and was recorded at -7.6°C on Friday against the -11.4°C recorded a day ago.

The night temperature witnessed a drop at Kupwara and recorded at a low of -5.6°C against the -4.6°C on the previous night, and this was 3.0°C below normal for the frontier Kashmir district in north Kashmir during this period of the season.

The picnic spot of Kokernag in south Kashmir had a low of -5.7°C against the -5.9°C recorded on Thursday, and the Qazigund further dipped to a low of -7.6°C against the -6.2°C, which was 4.7°C below normal for the gateway to Kashmir on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway during the period, the MeT office said.