With mercury climbing to 34.3°C, Kashmir witnessed the hottest day of the year on Tuesday.
While the ongoing first heat wave of the year in Kashmir is expected to continue for the next two more days, monsoon is expected to hit the region and bring light rains from June 11.
Meteorological department officials said the Valley is reporting day temperature of over 30°C for the past three days.
“We are passing through a heat wave. June 8 was the hottest day of the year with Srinagar recording a temperature of 34.3°C as against a normal of 27.9°C,” said meteorologist Mohammad Hussain Mir.
Srinagar also recorded a minimum of 18.6°C during the night. The northern district of Kupwara saw mercury settling at 34°C during the day while the ski resort of Gulmarg saw a temperature of 25°C.
Mir said the temperature will remain 4.5 degrees above normal for the next two days after which monsoon may affect the region. He said from June 11, cloudy weather and isolated mild rains can be expected owing to a mild depression in the Bay of Bengal, which will move through Gangetic Plains and mildly affect Jammu and Kashmir.
“There will be mostly scattered rains from June 12 to 14 with widespread rains on June 13,” said Mir.
{{/usCountry}}“There will be mostly scattered rains from June 12 to 14 with widespread rains on June 13,” said Mir.
{{/usCountry}}The second half of the month of May and early June witnessed extreme weather conditions with sunshine in the mornings and afternoons, and thunderstorms and showers during the evenings.
April had witnessed some good wet spells across the region. After a relatively hot February, March had mostly remained cold and rainy with intermittent precipitation across Jammu and Kashmir.
Although February had witnessed a number of snow spells, the month also saw an abrupt increase in maximum temperatures. On February 22, Srinagar had recorded a maximum of 18.6 degrees and Kupwara had gone even further to record 20.5 degrees.