Gulmarg and Pahalgam along with other higher reaches received fresh snowfall while light rains lashed plains including Srinagar amid increase in night temperature on Monday.
A meteorological department official said that Srinagar recorded a low of 0.9°C against last night’s minus 0.1°C. Today’s minimum temperature was 2.8°C above normal for the summer capital which received 0.5mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours till 8:30 am today, he said.
Pahalgam received 0.2cm of snowfall during the time and recorded a low of minus 0.7°C against minus 1.4°C on the previous night. Today’s minimum temperature was 6.3°C above normal for the place, he said.
The coldest night recorded this season in the famous tourist resort in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district was on 2 January when mercury plunged to minus 9.6°C.
Gulmarg received 9 cm of snowfall and recorded a low of minus 2.5°C against minus 3.4°C on the previous night, the official said. It was 5.3°C above normal for the world famous skiing resort in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district that had its coldest night this season on January 2 when minimum temperature plummeted to minus 10.0°C, the official said.
The meteorological department has forecast the possibility of light to moderate snowfall (rain in plains of Jammu) at many places of J-K during next 24 hours.
From January 10-11th, the MeT official said, weather is livelily to be “generally cloudy”.
From January 12-13, he said, there is possibility of widespread moderate snowfall (rain in plains of Jammu) with “heavy snowfall” over higher reaches (more than 75% chances).
He said that the weather system is “very likely” to affect air transportation during 12-13th (60-70% chance).
Kashmir is under the grip of Chillai-Kalan, the 40-day long harsh winter period that started on December 21. It does not mean an end to the winter either. It is followed by a 20-day-long period called ‘Chillai-Khurd’ that occurs between January 30 and February 19 and a 10-day-long period ‘Chillai-Bachha’ (baby cold) which is from February 20 to March 1. (KDC)
