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At - 8°C, Gulmarg records coldest night of the season
The MeT said Gulmarg recorded - 8°C on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday while temperatures in the rest of the places were relatively better
The ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir witnessed the coldest night of the season as the mercury plunged several degrees below zero a day after a snowfall, the meteorological department (MeT) said.
The MeT said Gulmarg recorded - 8°C on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday while temperatures in the rest of the places were relatively better.
“Srinagar recorded a minimum temperature of 0.5°C, Gulmarg was -8.0°C,” said MeT official Mohammad Hussain Mir.
After snowfall over higher reaches on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, the weather improved across Kashmir on Sunday.
Officials said the Mughal road, which connects Kashmir with Jammu division’s Rajouri and Poonch districts, was still closed. “The road has not been opened yet” informed the traffic control room in Srinagar.
The minimum temperature in the southern tourist resort of Pahalgam was recorded at -5.8°C, while Konibal was cold at -1.0°C.
The MeT update further said that the gateway to Kashmir in South Kashmir, Qazigund recorded a minimum of 0.8°C.
The southern area of Kokernag observed a minimum of 1.1°C, while North Kashmir Kupwara recorded a low of -2.2°C.
In the Jammu division, the Jammu city recorded a minimum of 6.1°C while Bhaderwah observed the lowest of -0.2°C.
The MeT has said the weather will remain generally dry. “On December 23, generally cloudy weather with the possibility of light snow over isolated higher reaches is expected,” he said. “Overall no significant weather activity till December 28,” it said.
Chilai Kalan, Kashmir’s harshest 40-day winter period, starts December 21 and is expected to witness bone-chilling temperatures and heavy snowfall.
Kashmir gets 70% of its precipitation through Western Disturbances – moisture-laden winds from the Mediterranean – with normally December, January and February as snow months and March and April (receiving above 100 mm each) as the wettest rain months.
